Meet the LopezPierce's
by causticity
Summary: The annual Labor Day Lopez-Pierce family trip goes a little awry when Sugar visits McKinley High and accidentally travels back in time to her moms' senior year of high school.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

__New York City, NY September 3, 2037__

"Mami, this is so not fair!" whined Sugar to her mother as she angrily threw clothes into a suitcase lying open on her bed. "I've had the concert tickets for months. I even asked Mom's permission before I bought them."

"Mija, I'm going to say this one more time. Stop the complaining or there will be consequences I know you won't like," replied Santana, eyes narrowing dangerously. Sugar knew better than to argue with her mother when she decided to lay down the law.

"All I was saying is—"

"All you were saying is what sweetie?" asked Brittany who had just entered the bedroom.

"She was saying that she wants to ditch Labor Day weekend with her grandparents to go to that concert with Madison," replied Santana.

"Sugar, it's a family tradition. We always visit our parents before school starts. They aren't getting any younger," said Brittany gently.

"I know, but Mom, you were the one who told me I could go to the concert, and the tickets weren't cheap, and I already arranged everything with Madison and her sister to take us, and I can always go to Lima next year, and—"

"Sugar Lopez-Pierce, I said that's enough. We're going to see your grandparents. End of discussion," said Santana.

"But Mom—"

"Sweetie, I'm with your mother on this one. There will be other concerts. Family comes first," said Brittany.

* * *

><p>"Ugh, Madison, I know." groaned Sugar flopping down on her bed next to her half-packed suitcase, her cell-phone pressed between her ear and shoulder. "It's totally unfair. I don't want to spend the last days of my summer in Suck-Hio with my grandparents. We're going to do the same stupid things as every year. Go to stupid Breadstix for the stupid annual Lopez-Pierce family dinner, feed the stupid ducks at the stupid park, and visit stupid McKinley High School so Mom and Mami can relive their not-so-glorious glory days. Believe me; I'd rather be at the concert with you and Megan." She could hear her moms speaking in hushed tones down the hall. She wondered if they were talking about her. "Hey, Mads, I gotta go. I guess I'll see you at school. Ugh, school. Okay, bye."<p>

Sugar tossed her phone to the end of her bed, rolled over, and stood up. She glanced over at her half-finished packing job and considering finishing for a second, but she was more interested in what her moms were talking about so secretively in their bedroom. She padded down the hallway in her fuzzy socks to her parents' room. The door was opened just enough that she could see her moms sitting on their bed. Brittany was lying on her stomach. Santana was stretched out next to her playing with her blonde hair that was down and blocking Brittany's face from view. Sugar had never gotten used to the way Santana looked at Brittany. When Sugar was a little girl, she just assumed that everyone's parents were as much in love as hers, but as she grew up she began to realize that her moms were special. When they were alone together, they only had eyes for each other. Santana's eyes would crinkle in a certain way that was only for Brittany and Brittany who was touchy feely with everyone had a special way of touching that was just for Santana. Sugar knew that they had known each other since they were little girls and that they grew up doing everything together. She also knew that they had kind of a rocky relationship in high school. Her moms didn't like to talk about their relationship pre-senior year because when they were in high school gay couples were seen as different, even wrong. Sugar had grown up in a world where every type of relationship was embraced. Gay, straight, black, white, it didn't matter. She had always wondered what her moms were like in high school. She knew they were cheerleaders and they sang in a glee club, but that was pretty much it.

The sound of her name drifted from the bedroom bringing Sugar back to reality.

"Britt, I just don't understand what's going through Sugar's head," said Santana still running her fingers through Brittany's hair.

"She's a teenager. Of course she's going to be rebellious," replied Brittany, fingers trailing down Santana's forearm to her inner wrist.

"But when did we give her the idea that asking to skip a family trip, a trip that's a tradition no less, for a concert is acceptable?" said Santana.

"Is it really such a big issue? She asked, we said no and that was the end of it," said Brittany sliding her legs over to tangle her feet with Santana's.

"I don't know. I think maybe… I think it maybe hurt my feelings. I want Sugar to_want_ to go, I don't want to force her. I just want her to be our little girl and think it's fun to visit her grandparents and feed the ducks and adventure around Lima," said Santana quietly.

"Aw, San. She's still our little girl. She may be our big fifteen year old little girl, but she's still ours. Don't you remember us at fifteen? I'm glad Sugar is more sensible than we were our sophomore year of high school. I mean we were—"

"Yes, Britt. I remember what we were doing. Very vividly unfortunately," said Santana with discomfort creeping into her voice. Half a second later, her eyes widened a bit. "Britt, you don't think she's—"

"No, no. I don't think so. Our baby? No," said Brittany sitting up and sliding her fingers between Santana's. "San, just breathe. She's a smart girl. She's going to be just fine." Brittany leaned over and kissed Santana's temple. "I'm tired though. We have to get up early if we want to make good time tomorrow." She crawled under the covers and snuggled towards her wife. Santana sighed and climbed under the covers and slid up against Brittany.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too. Sug's going to be okay. Promise," whispered Brittany back.

Sugar took that as her cue to go back to her room and finish packing. The exchange between her moms left her with a lot to think about. What were they doing their sophomore year that they so desperately didn't want her doing?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Are we there yet?"

"Sugar! How old are you mija? Read the signs. We're still in Pennsylvania," said Santana, her patience obviously thinning.

"When are we stopping for lunch?" asked Sugar from the back seat.

"_Ay dios mio_! Brittany, please tell your daughter to shut up."

"Sugar, I think your mother would prefer if you stopped asking her questions," said Brittany.

"Yeah, that's not exactly how she phrased it. I can hear her," grumbled Sugar.

"Oh you can hear me? Well then listen up. If you don't shut your—" started Santana, but Brittany reached over and took her hand.

"San, relax. I swear the closer we get to Ohio the snippier you get," soothed Brittany. Santana huffed out a breath.

"I'm fine," she said. Brittany reached up and smoothed back Santana's hair. Santana turned and gave Brittany a weak smile.

"Okay," said Brittany. "Who wants to listen to the playlist I made?"

"NO," said Sugar and Santana at the same time.

"Mom, please spare us. Can we just listen to the radio?" said Sugar. Brittany crossed her arms.

"I don't know why you don't like my music," she said.

"Babe, I love you, but we're not listening to Disco Duck all the way to Ohio," said Santana as kindly as possible.

"Fine," said Brittany, "But remember, there might be consequences."

"Aw, Mom. So don't want to hear about that," groaned Sugar throwing up her hands as if to shield herself.

* * *

><p>"There she is! Come here squirt!" Sugar's grandparents moved in on her as soon as they opened the front door, arms wide for a bear hug.<p>

"Hi grandma, hi grandad," said Sugar voice muffled by the two bodies. They let go of her and stood back to look at her.

"Well you just shot right up didn't you sweet pea?" said her grandpa. "How old are you now? Seven? Eight?"

"Oh, David, hush!" said her grandma smacking him lightly on the shoulder, "Sugar we know you're fifteen." Her grandpa exaggeratedly clapped his hand to forehead.

"Fifteen! That's it. I was close," he said laughing and putting his arm around Sugar. "Well come on in you guys!" He took Sugar's suitcase and pulled her into the house. Brittany and Santana followed with the rest of the bags.

"Brittany, honey, come give your mother a hug," said Mrs. Pierce. Brittany set down her bag and stepped forward to hug her mom.

"And Santana, you look as stunning as ever," said Mr. Pierce pulled her in for a hug.

"Yes, you both look amazing," said Mrs. Pierce, "It's so nice having you all home."

"It's nice being home," replied Santana and Brittany at the same time. They glanced at each other and smiled.

"You two," said Mrs. Pierce fondly, "Haven't changed a bit. Why don't you put your things in your rooms and come on down? I have dinner all ready."

Sugar picked up her suitcase and lugged it upstairs and down the hall to the guest room. Whenever they visited her grandparents she always stayed in the guest room and her moms stayed in Brittany's old room. She unzipped her suitcase to get a fresh t-shirt, the one she was wearing smelled like road trip. After slipping on the new shirt, she walked over to the window and peered out. The backyard was reassuringly familiar. The old swing set was in the same place. The tall oak tree whose branches were just outside of her moms' bedroom was casting a shadow across the yard.

Sugar turned and walked over to the closet. She slid open the door and took a deep breath in. It smelled like a stronger version of the smell that hung around her grandparents' house. Out of the corner of her eye, on the top shelf of the closet, she spotted an unfamiliar box. "_Brittany's Things"_ was scrawled across the top in careful teacher's handwriting that was immediately recognizable as her grandmother's. Why wasn't that box in Brittany's room? Or in the basement with the rest of Brittany's old things? Sugar stood on her tiptoes and tried to slide the box off the shelf. She wasn't quite tall enough, but she managed to push it until it was teetering on the edge of the shelf. One last nudge and it tumbled down into her arms with a loud clatter. She whipped her head around to make sure no one was looking in her room before setting the box down on the bed and closing her door.

The box was mostly empty except for a few dusty dance trophies that Brittany must have won when she was little and a few old photographs. Sugar picked up the photographs and flicked through them. She had never seen them before. They were old pictures of Brittany and Santana at various ages. In one picture they looked like they were about seven, Santana was missing one of her front teeth. They were standing on a playground. Santana's arm was tight around Brittany's shoulder and they were flashing impossibly wide grins at the camera. The next looked like it was from a school dance. Santana was wearing a long red dress and had her arm around a tall, chunky boy with brown hair. She didn't look very happy. Apparently Brittany hadn't realized someone was taking a picture because she wasn't looking at the camera, she was staring at Santana. Sugar frowned at that picture. Why weren't her moms standing together? She flipped over the picture to see if it was dated, but the back was blank. She tossed that one aside and looked at the next. Her moms were in their cheerleading uniforms, but they looked pretty young. They must have been in ninth grade. They were smiling coyly at the camera with their pinkies linked. The next picture was dated July 2003. Santana was riding a red bike with Brittany seated on the handlebars. Brittany looked like she was screaming and Santana was laughing.

Sugar set down the pictures and pushed aside the trophies to see if there were any others in the box. At the very bottom she noticed a book. She pulled it out of the box and flipped it over. Embossed on a red background in gold font was "WMHS 2011-2012".

"Sugar!"

Sugar gasped and dropped the book on the bed.

"Yeah… Uh. Yes, Mami?" she called after clearing her throat. Her heart was pounding from almost getting caught. She wasn't sure if her moms would get mad that she was looking at Brittany's old stuff, but they were kind of private about what happened with them in high school.

"Sug, it's dinner time!" yelled her mom from down the hall.

"Yeah, uh. I'm coming! Be there in one second," she called back. Quickly she put the pictures back in the box and shoved it in the closet. She slid the yearbook under her pillow. She wanted to look at it later.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"So Sug, how's choir going?" asked Mr. Pierce at dinner. The whole family was sitting around the table eating Mrs. Pierce's famous lasagna, a Lopez-Pierce Labor Day tradition.

"Fine I guess," she replied spooning another bite of lasagna into her mouth.

"Don't be so modest Sugar! She got her first solo last week," said Brittany patting her arm.

"Well that's just great Sugar," said her grandma. "What are you singing?"

"I haven't decided yet," she said.

"Oh, do you get to choose what song you want to sing?"

"Yeah. Well, the whole choir does a song that the director picks and then the soloists get to pick what song they're doing."

"So the other kids have to learn the song you pick?"

"No. I sing one all by myself with an accompanist," said Sugar, already tired of the subject.

"Mom, it's not like when I was in high school where Rachel Berry would pick a song and we'd all sing it," said Brittany. "It's a normal choir, not a show choir. They don't really do show choirs anymore."

"Oh, I see," said Mrs. Pierce. "You girls loved that glee club. I remember hearing Santana practice for you up in your room." Santana blushed as much as her tan skin would allow. Brittany's eyes flicked up to meet Santana's and she smiled dangerously.

"Yes, we practiced quite a bit didn't we San?" said Brittany innocently. Santana and Sugar both started coughing on their lasagna at the same time.

"Whoa there girls! Something went down the wrong pipe, huh?" said Mr. Pierce laughing. Sugar had just raised her glass to take sip of water, but she snorted that back up too. Coughing, she stood up from her seat.

"I'm going to have to excuse myself," she spluttered. "Can you call me for dessert?"

Santana nodded weakly and Brittany smiled at her.

Sugar climbed the stairs, eager to get back to the yearbook she left under her pillow before dinner. She fell onto the bed and grabbed the book. Flipping open the cover, she ran her fingers over the glossy pages. 2011. What year would her moms be in 2011? She counted backwards on her fingers. She's fifteen. She was born when Brittany and Santana were twenty-eight. So that's ten years after her moms graduated from high schools. Thirty-seven minus fifteen minus twenty-eight equals… Senior year. This yearbook was from their senior year. She flipped open to where the pictures start. L… l… She flicked through the pages searching the faces for Santana's. Lopapa, Lopez! There she was. A younger version of her mom smiled up at her from the page. Of course she was wearing her cheerleading uniform. Her eyes moved across the row of faces when one caught her eye. Sugar dropped the book for the second time that night. It was impossible. Her eyes must have been playing tricks on her. If she checked the page again she would see that she was mistaken. Slowly, Sugar picked up the book and flipped back to the page she had been looking at. A few faces down from her mom's was a girl that looked remarkably familiar. "Sugar Motta" the caption under the picture said. It was her own smiling face staring at her from a yearbook that was published before she was even born.

That's completely impossible. Why would a girl with the same name and the same face be in her parents' senior yearbook? She looked close at the picture trying to see if it really was her. Something caught her eye. The t-shirt the girl in the picture was wearing looking familiar. White with blue lettering that was partially cut-off in the picture, but looked like it said Camp Winnapaka. Sugar jumped up and started digging through her suitcase. She found what she was looking for. A white t-shirt with faded blue writing that said Camp Winnapaka on the front.

The girl in the picture was her.

* * *

><p>Sugar stood up from the breakfast table.<p>

"So are we going to go?" she asked impatiently.

"Why are you in such a rush?" asked her mother, "You've never liked visiting our old high school before."

"Yeah, well, I like to take an interest in things that are important to you Mami," said Sugar quickly. Truthfully, she just wanted a chance to snoop around the school and see if she could dig up more on Sugar Motta. Her mother looked skeptical.

"I doubt that," said Santana, "But we're going to leave in five minutes as soon as we finish our coffee."

"Five minutes…" said Sugar, "Okay, yeah. That's fine." Santana raised her eyebrow.

"I'm glad that's fine because that's how long it's going to be," she said turning back to Brittany. "So you talked to Will?"

"Yes and he said he would meet us at school, let us into the choir room and then we could leave from there for lunch," replied Brittany.

"Great," said Santana draining the last of her coffee. "I'm going to go tell your parents we're leaving and then we can head out."

* * *

><p>Sugar bounced up in down in the backseat. Could her mother drive any slower? They were taking the long way to school so they could see some of Lima. Brittany pointed out their old elementary school, as always.<p>

"Look San! They put in new swings," she said, "Do you remember the time you threw the swing at Finn's face and knocked out his tooth?"

"Oh, god. Yes," said Santana, "Admittedly, it was pretty funny watching him cry."

Finally, after being subjected to the same boring stories as every year, they pulled into the parking lot of the high school. Sugar immediately jumped out of the car. Will Schuester was already there, sitting in his car on the phone. Santana and Brittany climbed out of the car and walked around to his window to wave.

"Okay, Emma. They just got here. I'll talk to you later. Love you too. Bye," he said hanging up the phone. "Hey girls!" He rolled up his window and got out of the car to give them a hug.

"You look great Will," said Brittany.

"Thanks, you too of course," he replied, "Is that Sugar?"

"Yeah, hi Mr. Schue," said Sugar.

"You look so grown up!" he said.

"That's probably because I'm a year older than when I last saw you."

"Sugar," said Santana sharply. "Excuse her, sometimes she's like a little version of me when I was in high school." Mr. Schuester laughed.

"Yeah," mumbled Sugar, "So are we going to go inside now?"

"Sure," said Mr. Schue, "Let's go."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: This is going to be brief. I just want to put it out there that this story will be following canon up until the point at which I feel it's necessary to break, so there will be spoilers through the most recent episode of season 3 which is On My Way at this point. Since it's the beginning of the story, I'm going to try and update frequently until I get into the meat of the story. Then I'll try to update once or twice a week. It depends on how fast I'm writing. Sorry if you feel that it's going too slowly. I like to take my time when writing and reading. There's so much potential in the small moments of a story that it's a shame to race into the action too quickly. At this point, I don't know how long the story is going to be. If you notice a typo or grammatical error or anything feel free to let me know. I can't stand stories with lots of errors. I love to get feedback. This is my first fanfic, so constructive criticism is always welcome. Review if you'd like. I enjoy reading them. In case you were wondering, the title is not from Meet the Parents or Meet the Fockers, it's from Meet the Robinsons which is a hilarious animated movie about a kid who time-travels to the future and meets his future family. This chapter is a little early because it's short. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter Four<p>

Mr. Schue opened the door to the school and Brittany, Santana, and Sugar followed him into the building.

"So, where to first?" asked Mr. Schue.

"I think Britt and I are going to roam a bit before we head to the choir room," said Santana. "Do you want to meet back here in ten?"

"Sounds good," said Mr. Schue. "I have some things I wanted to drop in my room anyway. School starts in a few days. I'm getting geared up to go back again."

"Wow, time flies doesn't it?" said Brittany. "Sug, do you want to come with us?"

"I think I'm going to look around myself," said Sugar, eager to investigate.

"Okay sweetie. See you all back here in a bit," said Brittany. Santana laced her fingers with Brittany's and they walked in the direction of the gym. Mr. Schue headed to his office. Sugar was finally alone. Time to do some serious sleuthing.

She walked down the hallway in the direction that she vaguely recalled as being towards the choir room. As she walked down the hallway, she noticed something written on a locker. She stopped to get a better look. _S.L. + B.P._ was written in the bottom left corner of a locker in sharpie. She frowned and looked at the locker number. _492._ This was Santana's locker. She remembered because her moms showed her their lockers every year, but she didn't remember something being written on one of them. She reached out her hand to touch the letters.

"Hey!" a voice called from down the hall. Sugar spun around. "How did you get in here?"

The voice belonged to an old man wearing what looked like janitor's clothes. That was weird though. Cleaning was mostly done by automated bots now.

"What's your name kid?" said the janitor walking up to her.

"I, uh. Sugar," stuttered Sugar. "Mr. Schuester let us in. I'm here with my moms. They used to go here."

"Sugar?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Um, yeah."

"Follow me," he said. He turned around and started walking down the hallway. Sugar stood there for a minute completely perplexed before bounding down the hallway to catch up with him.

"So um, what's your name… Um, sir?" asked Sugar hesitantly after they had been walking for a minute.

"Al Motta, but the kids call me Mr. Kidney," he replied.

"Mr. Kidney?"

"Yeah. I only have one kidney," he said.

"Oh," said Sugar quietly. "If you don't mind my asking, where are we going?" All of a sudden, Mr. Kidney stopped in the middle of the hallway. Sugar almost bumped into him.

"You're looking for something," said Mr. Kidney.

"Uh, yeah. Kind of," said Sugar. He pointed to the janitor's closet they had stopped in front of.

"It's in there," he said.

"In the janitor's closet?" asked Sugar, but he had already started to walk away. "Hey, Mr. Kidney-Motta-whatever! Where are you going?"

"The closet has all the answers," he responded and vanished around a corner.

Sugar stood in front of the door for a second. Should she listen to some sketchy custodian and go into a random closet in a dark, deserted hallway? Maybe she should go back and try to find her moms, but what if this was her only chance to find out about the girl in the yearbook.

Motta… Why did that sound familiar? Sugar realized that was the last name of the girl in the picture. What if that girl was his daughter? The curiosity finally won out. Slowly, Sugar reached out and turned the doorknob. The door creaked open slightly. She took a step forward and nudged it open further. It was dark and she couldn't really see what was inside, but it looked like cleaning supplies. She pushed the door open and stepped inside.

A dingy lightbulb flickered from the ceiling casting a faint yellow light on the contents of the closet. The door opened to the inside, so she had to shut it to move around. There wasn't much to look at. A jug of bleach was in one corner and empty trash bags littered the floor. Leaning on the back wall were a bunch of brooms and mops. Sugar moved them out of the way. On the back wall was written _S.L. + B.P._ again in the same handwriting. Before she could inspect any further, a loud bang startled her. She spun around, but maybe she had turned too quickly because she started to feel woozy. Around her the closet seemed to be melting into a blur. She stumbled forward, tripping over something on the ground. She began to fall, expecting to connect with the floor at some point, but instead she just kept falling. And falling. And falling.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

_Lima, Ohio September 5, 2011_

Sugar fell for what felt like an infinite amount of time, or maybe just a few seconds. She blinked. She was lying on the floor of the janitor's closet. Dazed, she stood up. Something was different. There were more cleaning supplies in the closet and it was tidier. Someone had picked up the trash bags from the floor. Sugar stumbled backward and pulled open the door.

The lights of the hallway blinded her. She shielded her eyes until they adjusted. When she opened them again, she noticed something very peculiar. The hallway was filled with kids, backpacks slung over their backs, chatting casually. Had she hit her head? How long was she out? School wasn't supposed to start for a few days, she thought. Sugar took a step forward, still a little disoriented, right into the path of a large girl who smacked right into her. Sugar bounced off of her and landed on the ground.

"What the hell?" said the girl. Sugar slowly got to her feet.

"Uh, sorry," she said. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Whatever," said the girl brushing her aside.

"Hey, wait!" said Sugar. The girl turned around. "Um, how do I get to the choir room from here?"

"I don't know why you would want to venture into the home of the bottom-feeders, but it's down the hall, first door on the left," she said.

"Thanks," said Sugar, rushing off before she had to engage with her again. She knew she was in the right place when she heard Will's voice drifting out the door.

"So Mr. Motta, as a lover of the arts, agreed to donate them to glee," she heard him say. Motta. There was that name again. She started towards the door. Maybe Mr. Schuester would know what was going on, but she froze in the doorway. She dove backwards out of view before peeking into the choir room again. A bunch of kids were sitting in the chairs with Mr. Schue speaking at the front. At the back of the room, sitting next to each other, were two cheerleaders. One blonde and one brunette, who looked remarkably like younger versions of her parents. Mr. Schue kept talking about something called "The Purple Piano Project". The blonde girl stood up and jumped down from her seat to play with the piano. Sugar stared at her. She looked exactly how Brittany looked in old pictures, but that couldn't be possible. While she was staring at the Brittany look-a-like, she didn't realize that the other kids had started to get up to leave.

A loud bell rang. Sugar shrank back from the door as the kids filed out of the room. She watched as the kids walked in front of her. Some of them registered with her from old pictures, but she was too disoriented to put names to faces. Then, the two girls walked out, giggling and poking each other in the ribs. Sugar waited until they were a few paces ahead of her before following them. Snippets of their conversation floated back to her.

"So you're definitely coming over later?" said the brunette. As they walked, they would nudge at each other as if they wanted to hold hands, but they didn't.

"Yeah, I need help with my Spanish homework," the blonde replied. "I just don't understand why they put those squiggles and lines over the letters."

"They're accents Britts," said the brunette gently. Sugar froze. Britts. That was what Santana called Brittany. Sugar grabbed a boy as he walked passed her.

"Hey!" he exclaimed.

"What year is it?" Sugar asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"What year is it?" she asked, her voice going up a few octaves in panic.

"2011," he said. Sugar let go of his sleeve. "Jeeze, what a freak." Sugar ignored him and continued to walk down the hallway. She didn't understand how this could have happened. Sugar had seen the classic movie Back to the Future, but she thought time travel was usually voluntary. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize the hallways were mostly empty. The bell rang again. Class must have started.

"Sugar!" a voice hissed from behind her. Sugar turned and saw a hand beckoning to her from a classroom door. She slowly approached the room. How did someone know her name? If this was really 2011 then she wasn't born yet. A head popped out from the door. It was a young Mr. Kidney, the janitor that had sent her into the stupid closet in the first place! "Get in here!"

"Mr. Kidney!" she said walking up to him. "What the hell is going on?"

"Come in here," he said waving her into the classroom. "I'll explain everything." Sugar walked into the classroom. It was empty.

"Okay, what's going on?" demanded Sugar crossing her arms. "Is this really 2011? How did I get here?"

"Hold on a second," he said. "Let me explain. It's kind of complicated."

"Fine," said Sugar, "Go ahead."

"This isn't the first time you've been to the past," he said slowly.

"Uh, yeah it is. I think I would remember time traveling back to my moms senior year of high school," she said. "By the way, is that really them? The two cheerleaders I saw in the choir room?"

"You saw your parents already?" he said.

"Yeah. I went to find Mr. Schue to see what was happening, but he was having class and my moms were there."

"Did you talk to them?" asked Mr. Kidney.

"No," said Sugar. "Am I not supposed to?"

"No, no. It's not that," he said. "Here's the thing. You're trapped in the space time continuum."

"What?" asked Sugar.

"The janitor's closet that you went into is actually a wormhole."

"A worm what?"

"Basically, it's a shortcut through spacetime," he explained. "You were on vacation with your moms in the year 2037 when an older me told you to go into that janitor's closet and then you ended up here. Right?" Sugar was reeling from this information overload. How would he know that if he was lying?

"Um, yeah," said Sugar hesitantly, "But how do you know that?"

"Because you've been here before," he said. "Do you know what the butterfly effect is?"

"Um, no," said Sugar.

"Well, essentially, the first time you entered the wormhole, you accidentally altered the future," he said. "Your moms never got together because of a complicated series of events that occurred after you arrived here."

"Okay…" said Sugar. "So what does that mean?"

"It means that you ceased to exist," said Mr. Kidney. "But for some reason that I don't comprehend, when you reentered the wormhole after you stopped existing, you became trapped in a cycle of time traveling back and forth."

"How many times have I been here?" asked Sugar.

"Four," said Mr. Kidney.

"So, I have to get my parents together so that when I travel into the future I don't disappear and reappear again? Or something…" said Sugar.

"Yeah. Well, kind of," said Mr. Kidney. "I'm worried that eventually the alternate you that is currently living out your life at various points in time will start to fade and then you will truly cease to exist."

"Okay," said Sugar. "I'm not really going to worry about that right now since I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Like I said, it's complicated," he sighed.

"So what am I supposed to do now?"

"Well, you can come stay with me until we get this whole thing sorted out," he said. "I've already prepared for you to be enrolled here."

"How did you know I was coming?" asked Sugar.

"Honestly, at this point, it's better not to ask questions. Just accept that this is all happening," he said. "From now on, you're my daughter, Sugar Motta."

"Hey, are you the Mr. Motta that donated those purple pianos to the Glee club?" Sugar asked.

"It's all part of the plan," he said, "But you can call me Al. Or Dad if other people are around."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Sugar and Al pulled through a large pair of ornate gates. A long driveway lined with trees led to one of the biggest houses Sugar had ever seen.

"Al, do you live here?" asked Sugar incredulously looking up at the massive house looming in front of them.

"Yeah," he replied pulling the car into the enormous four car garage. "Why?"

"Aren't you a janitor?" asked Sugar.

"Yes, among other things," he said. "I'm own several businesses in Lima, including Motta's Pianos."

"So why are you a janitor then?"

"Because," he said.

"Seriously? You sent me into a wormhole that transported me back in time twenty-five years only to tell me that I technically don't exist anymore and I have to get my parents into bed together and you won't tell me why you're a janitor?" said Sugar raising her eyebrows at Al.

"Fine," he said. "Because I like kids and I don't have any of my own, so I work a couple of days a week at the high school."

"That's really all it is?" asked Sugar.

"Yeah," said Al.

"That's all you had to say then," said Sugar. "Can we go inside now?" Al switched off the car and jumped out to open Sugar's door for her.

"Thanks," said Sugar as climbed out of the car. They headed into the house. The garage door led into a mudroom that was connected to the kitchen, which was massive. It had cathedral ceilings, large windows across the back wall that looked out on a swimming pool, and gleaming stainless steel appliances. Al led her through what looked like a sitting room and a T.V. room to a back staircase.

"Your room is up the stairs, second room on the right. It has its own bathroom. Your clothes and toiletries are already up there," he said.

"Wait, my stuff is already in my room?" asked Sugar.

"Because you've already been here—"

"Four times. Right. I forgot," she said.

"Yeah. I'll leave you to it," said Al. "I'll be in my office. It's the last door at the end of this hallway."

Sugar made her way upstairs and down the hall. Second room on the right. She stopped in front of the door and pushed it open. Her room was big. Way bigger than her room in New York. The bed looked like it was a king size. Sugar walked over to the closet and slid open the door. Clothes were hung up and there were more in the drawers that lined the back of the closet. They all looked appropriate for the fashions of the time period from what she could tell. She slid the door closed again. What she really wanted was a shower after her long, or maybe short, day. She headed to the bathroom which of course was beautiful. There was a huge bathtub with jets and a waterfall shower. Shampoo and conditioner was lined up on the sink. She flipped the top off the shampoo and sniffed. It was a refreshing minty smell not unlike the scent of the shampoo she used at home. The familiar smell was reassuring in what was an increasingly strange new world.

After a long, hot shower, Sugar changed into a big t-shirt she found in one of the drawers. She flopped on the bed, completely exhausted. Her eyes fluttered shut and she fell asleep quickly.

* * *

><p><em>A boy with a buzz cut holds a stuffed duck high over a smaller blonde girl's head laughing.<em>

"_Noah! Give it back!" she squeals obviously on the verge of tears._

"_Say you're stupid," says the boy._

"_I'm… not," says the girl._

"_Yes, you are. You said one plus one equals ducks today during math," sneers the boy. "That's wrong, so you're stupid Brittany."_

"_That's because it does!" says the girl indignantly._

"_Puckerman!" another girl with dark brown hair strides up to the boy. "Give Britt her duck back. Now." The brown-haired girl is considerably smaller than both the boy and the blonde girl, but her presence is intimidating._

"_Go away Santana," says the boy. "This is between me and Brittany."_

"_You should know by now that anything that has to do with Britt is automatically my business too," says the girl folding her arms menacingly. "Give her the duck or suffer the consequences Puckerman."_

"_What are you gonna do about it Lopez?" scoffs the boy who seems a little less confident now. The brown-haired girl smirks, pulls back, and kicks the boy square between the legs. Groaning, the boy drops the duck and falls to the ground. The brown-haired girl picks up the duck and hands it to the other girl._

"_Here Britts," she says gently. The blonde girl accepts the duck sniffing a little bit. "Hey, what's wrong?"_

"_Noah called me stupid," the blonde girl says softly._

"_Britt-Britt, you are not stupid. I promise," the smaller girl puts her arm around her friend's shoulders to comfort her._

"_He said one plus one doesn't equal ducks," she sniffs, "But when there's one mama duck and one daddy duck they have lots of baby ducks. So one duck plus one duck equals more ducks."_

"_You're totally right Britt," says the brown haired girl soothingly. "You're a genius Brittany. If he can't see that then he's the stupid one."_

* * *

><p>Sugar woke up with a start. What a vivid dream she'd had. It almost seemed like a memory, which wouldn't make sense if her moms were little girls.<p>

She sat up in bed and looked around. Where was she? Then the events of the previous day came rushing back. The janitor's closet, seeing her moms, and meeting Al all came flooding back at once. It was still pretty hard to wrap her head around it all. She didn't quite understand the logistics of the whole time-traveling disappearing and reappearing thing. She knew she had to get her parents together. They didn't look like they were together exactly when she had seen them the day before though. They looked like very close friends, but they didn't look like girlfriends. Maybe it had something to do with the whole "being gay in high school isn't cool" thing that she could never quite grasp because she hadn't grown up with it. In 2037, there was marriage equality in every state and it just wasn't an issue. Being opposed to same sex relationships was the same as being opposed to interracial relationships, both were completely outdated ideas and prejudice against gays was virtually unheard of.

So, first on her list was figuring out the status of her moms relationship currently then she needed to get them together if they weren't already. Sugar regretted not listening more closely to the stories her moms had told her about how they got together. She knew it was official by senior year because they mentioned going on dates and making college plans together, but she didn't know when during senior year. She was going to have to do some major snooping and maybe a little shameless stalking. She is their daughter after all, that must give her special permission to creep on them. As she thought, a plan began to form in her head, but she was going to need Al's help. She glanced over at the alarm clock on her bedside table.

First things first, she was late for school.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Sugar hurried to get dressed. She flew down the stairs and into the kitchen. Al was already seated at the table eating cereal.

"Good morning sunshine," he said.

"Al! I'm late aren't I? Why didn't you wake me up?" asked Sugar.

"I thought you could use the sleep," he said. "It's not a big deal. Hopefully you'll be back home in your normal school soon. Have some breakfast." Sugar sat down and dumped the cereal into the bowl that was waiting out for her.

"So, I have a plan," said Sugar. "But it's going to require some manipulation and probably some money."

"Okay," said Al. "Hit me with it."

* * *

><p>By the time Sugar got to school it was almost lunch time. She picked up her schedule from the main office. English, Biology, Algebra II, and U.S. History. Al apparently didn't realize she had already taken four of those classes. She asked the secretary where the cafeteria was and headed there. Right when she walked in, she zeroed in on her moms. They were sitting with the rest of the kids from the choir room at the end of one of the tables. Without the all the stress Sugar could actually recognize a most of the kids. The one with the mohawk was Noah Puckerman, the loud one standing up wearing the white dress was the infamous Rachel Berry, the boy wearing the plaid shirt and tie was Mike, and the boy sitting next to Santana she realized was her Uncle Kurt. She also recognized Mercedes, Tina, and Finn even though she had never met them, but she didn't know who the wheelchair kid was. Sugar thought that Uncle Blaine had gone to school with Kurt and her moms. She also wondered where Aunt Quinn was. She was sure that she had been in glee club with her moms because she was in all of the glee club pictures.<p>

Sugar decided to sit one table down from them so she could watch. She pulled out a book from her purse and pretended to read it while she observed her moms. Sugar noticed right behind their table was one of the purple pianos that Al had donated. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it looked like they were talking about something. Then, a bunch of guys came and sat at the instruments and began to play. All the kids jumped up and started to dance. Rachel, of course, immediately jumped onto a table and started to sing.

Sugar was most concerned with her moms. She knew they sang and she had watched her mom teach dance lessons, but she had never seen them perform. After Rachel's requisite few lines of hogging the spotlight, Sugar watched as her moms jumped on the table she was sitting at. Sugar tried to focus on her book and not stare at her moms, but it was hard with Brittany stomping on the table directly in front of her. Then, Santana walked past her and began to sing. She was amazing. Sugar leaned away as Brittany stepped on the bench next to her to climb back up on the table. Sugar couldn't help but think that this was the most intense thing that had ever happened to her. She watched as her moms danced with each other flirtatiously. Brittany and Santana both had solos and they were really good dancers too. No wonder they had loved glee club. They were so good.

At the end of the performance, Sugar almost jumped up to applaud them, but didn't when no one else started clapping. What was wrong with these people? They were awesome.

Sugar escaped from the cafeteria right at the beginning of the food fight. She didn't want to be covered in food for phase one of her master plan. She headed to the girls bathroom to get the food out of her hair and collect her thoughts. She thought her best bet of getting Santana to like her would be to not be a threat to her. She was also concerned that she might let something slip that wasn't appropriate for the time period, but she had that figured out too. After arranging her appearance, she headed to the choir room. This was it. She paused in the doorway and listened.

"Not one single person was inspired by our hot lunch jam to try out Mr. Schue," said Mercedes angry and covered in food. Sugar took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

"It's true," she started. "You guys sucked ass." Everyone in the room turned to look at her.

"Uh… I'm sorry, and you are?" said Rachel Berry.

"I'm Sugar Motta," she said stepping forward, "And I have self-diagnosed Asberger's, so I can say pretty much whatever I want. I'm like a diplomat's daughter."

"How can we help you Sugar?" asked Mr. Schue.

"Here's the deal. I'm awesome, and I wanna be a big, big star. And when I saw you guys singing and dancing in the cafeteria I thought, I am so much better than you," she replied. She prayed that this was working. "Sorry, Asberger's."

"Well, great. You see guys? You have inspired an audition. Good job!" said Mr. Schue clapping. He was equally as annoying as a young man as he was in the future. "Sugar, why don't you show us what you can do. You know, take your time, whenever you're ready." Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the middle of the room and set down her purse. She could feel her moms gaze burning into her.

"Get ready to taste some sweet ear-candy," she said. She turned to the piano guy. "Hit it hottie." She launched into the worst performance of _Big Spender_ she could possibly muster. There were two possible outcomes of this situation. One, Will would let her into the New Directions even though she was terrible where she could keep an eye on her moms. Or, two, she could move into the second phase of her master plan.

After her performance, she went into the hallway and listened at the door. Obviously, Rachel was completely against letting her in the club, but noble Mr. Schuester was sticking to his "anyone who tries out gets in" bullshit. Sugar recalled her moms mentioning that they lost Nationals their junior year. That was probably why.

She jumped when the bell rang. The glee kids were coming out of the classroom. Santana and Brittany left the room with their arms linked. Sugar was ready to get her snoop on. She followed them down the hall at a safe distance, but close enough that she could hear most of what they were saying.

"San, I'm so food-y," complained Brittany, still picking remnants of lunch off her uniform.

"Yeah, well I knew singing in the middle of the cafeteria was a really fucking bad idea," said Santana pulling a noodle out of Brittany's hair.

"I'm like the flying spaghetti monster," said Brittany.

"Sure Britt," said Santana. "Let's get a shower before try outs." Sugar followed her moms to the girls' locker room. They went in and Sugar waited a minute before following. The locker room was empty since it was last period. Sugar peeked around the end of an aisle of lockers. Brittany was leaning against a locker and Santana was sitting on the bench in the middle of the aisle. Brittany's foot was in Santana's lap and Santana was untying her shoe.

"That Sugar girl was god awful," said Santana pulling at the knot. "It sounded like someone was torturing Lord Tubbington."

"That's not nice Santana," said Brittany seriously. Santana pulled off Brittany's shoe and sock.

"Switch," she said motioning for Brittany's other foot.

"I thought she was okay," said Brittany. "Very raw. Edgy."

"If by edgy you mean it felt like someone was cutting off your ears with razor blades." Santana pulled off Brittany's other sock and stood up to take off her own shoes and socks.

"That's not what I meant by edgy," said Brittany frowning. Santana stepped forward and unzipped Brittany's top.

"There's no way in hell the hobbit is going to let that one anywhere near her stage," said Santana pulling her hair out of the ponytail.

"Well I kind of like her," replied Brittany folding her arms. Sugar couldn't help grinning. Her mom was defending her. High school Brittany was a little… quirkier than the Brittany she knew, but she definitely liked her.

"You like everyone Britts," said Santana poking her in the ribs. Brittany giggled.

"And you just like me," replied Brittany.

"That's probably true," said Santana poking her again. There was the look. A look Sugar recognized all too well. It was the completely head-over-heels fairytale in love look that Santana gave Brittany. Brittany obviously saw it too because she smiled and leaned in and then they were kissing. Sugar let out a weird little giggle-squeak because this whole situation was so strange. Her seventeen year old moms were making out in the locker room of their high school and they weren't wearing any shoes. Sugar clapped her hand over her mouth and ducked behind the lockers.

Santana pulled away from Brittany.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, removing her hands from Brittany's waist and taking a half-step back.

"Hear what?" said Brittany, stepping forward as Santana stepped back.

"Is there someone in here?" called Santana looking down the aisle of lockers.

"San, I didn't hear anything," said Brittany softly. She reached up to brush Santana's hair out of her face, but Santana flinched away ever so slightly. Brittany looked hurt.

"I just," Santana started, "I just thought I heard someone."

"There's no one here," said Brittany. "It's just us." She leaned in again and gently kissed Santana.

"Okay," she whispered.

"Do you want to shower now?" asked Brittany.

"Yeah," said Santana. She picked up her towel and walked towards the showers. Brittany stared at her as she walked away.

Sugar took that as her cue to leave. Watching her teenage moms showering together was definitely not something she ever planned on doing.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Sugar tore her eyes away from Santana who she had been slightly creepily staring at for the past ten minutes. She had stationed herself a few tables away from her mom outside so she could watch her and Brittany, expecting them to be together, but for some reason Brittany was nowhere to be found. Sugar had been expecting some kind of musical number since she spotted one of Al's pianos, but what she was not expecting was a young Blaine Anderson to slide down a railing in bright red pants and launch into a song.

"It's not unusual to be loved by anyone," he crooned. Sugar clapped her hands excitedly. She loved watching her Uncle Blaine sing. Whenever he and Uncle Kurt came over for the holidays, they would always treat her and her moms to a number. She noticed he had an affinity for brightly-colored bowties, even at this age. "It's not unusual to have fun with anyone, but when I see you hanging about with anyone. It's not unusual to see me cry, oh I wanna die."

Sugar saw Santana motion to the cheerleaders who came from all directions, flanked Blaine, and began to dance; perfectly choreographed moves, Sugar noted.

"It's not unusual to go out at any time," sang Blaine. Santana stood up and joined the dance. Blaine was gay, right, because her mom was dancing pretty flirtatiously with him.

Sugar frowned a little and craned her neck to look around for Brittany again. She very rarely saw the two of them apart. Towards the end of the song Blaine went over to sing to Kurt. That was reassuring at least. This whole who is and isn't gay and who is and isn't dating thing was very confusing and completely unnecessary in Sugar's opinion. Then, the piano burst into flames. Was that on purpose?

"Quinn," shrieked Rachel advancing on a girl with pink hair. "Look what you did." Quinn? Not Santana and Brittany's Quinn. She wouldn't be caught dead with pink hair wearing what she was wearing.

"Oops," she replied. She turned to walk away.

"I know you're sad Quinn, but that doesn't give you the right to step on all of your friends like they don't matter," said Rachel.

"Rachel," said Finn who had come over and put his hand on Rachel's shoulder. "She's not worth it." Finn guided Rachel away. She looked like she was crying. Sugar wasn't sure what the big deal was. They had three of those dumb pianos. Out of the corner of her eye, Sugar saw Santana walking away alone. She decided to follow her. She saw Santana go into an empty classroom. Quietly, she crept to the doorway and peeked in. Brittany was sitting at a table drawing on a piece of paper. She looked up when Santana went and sat down across from her.

"San! I finished the-," started Brittany excitedly but something was wrong because she stopped in the middle of her sentence. "Hey, San. What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Sugar hadn't realized Santana was crying.

"It's nothing B," said Santana. Sugar could hear the shakiness of her voice. Brittany leaned forward and wiped a tear from Santana's cheek with her thumb.

"If it was nothing you wouldn't be crying," replied Brittany. "Did something happen?"

"I just," Santana started, "I did something stupid." Brittany looked a little worried now.

"That's impossible," said Brittany. "You're super smart." Santana laughed a little.

"Thanks Britts," she said.

"So what did you do?" asked Brittany.

"I kind of lit one of the purple pianos on fire," said Santana sheepishly.

"Oh," said Brittany. "Why?"

"Coach Sue told me to."

"Okay," said Brittany. "So that probably wasn't the best idea, but what's the problem?"

"Mr. Schue is going to kick me out of glee," said Santana sadly. "He's being a hard-ass this year. Did you hear he's not going to let that Sugar girl into the club? I'm screwed." Sugar raised her eyebrows. That meant phase two was a go. She needed to call Al.

"No he won't," said Brittany taking Santana's hand and lacing their fingers together. "You're too good. We need you."

"Yeah, well I guess we'll see during choir practice," replied Santana reaching her other hand across the table to hold Brittany's.

"How did you do it though?" asked Brittany.

"Do what?"

"Light the piano on fire."

"Oh. I had some of the Cheerios dump gas on it and I asked Quinn to throw a cigarette on it," said Santana. Brittany frowned a little. "What B?"

"How come you didn't ask me to help?" she said. Sugar's leg was starting to fall asleep from crouching by the door.

"Because Britts, I didn't want you to get in trouble. I know you love glee club." From what Sugar had seen of high school Santana she had not expected her to be this much of a sap.

"Aw, San, but you love it too," said Brittany.

"Well, I'm probably going to have to learn to live without it," she replied somberly. Brittany's eyes lit up and she clapped her hands.

"I have something that's going to cheer you up," she said. "Close your eyes." Sugar watched as Santana put her hands over her eyes. Brittany picked up the piece of paper she had been drawing on when Santana walked in, walked around to Santana's side of the table, and plopped down in her lap.

"Oof, Britt, what are you doing?" said Santana.

"Okay, open your eyes," said Brittany. Santana opened her eyes and Brittany proudly thrust a piece of paper in front of her.

"Lord Tubbington thinks your purrfect, and so do I," read Santana aloud. "Aw, Britts. That's so cute. Thanks." Brittany leaned down for a kiss. Santana wrapped her arms around Brittany's waist and pulled her in enthusiastically. Brittany threaded her fingers together at the back of Santana's neck. The kiss got heated pretty quickly. Brittany had rearranged herself so she was straddling Santana's lap.

Sugar decided to scoot out of there before she saw something scarring.

* * *

><p>"Obviously your ears are busted, 'cause I worked that song like a hooker pole. It's no biggie, I'll come in and do it again," said Sugar slamming her locker closed.<p>

"Sugar I'm sorry. You can't sing. The answer is no. But I love your enthusiasm and I'd be happy to work with you so-"

"You know what? Who cares what you think. Hm? Nobody. You're a washed up Broadway wannabe who's stuck in Lima and has led the Glee Club to how many national wins? Oh, I'm sorry. Zero. Not. Asperger's," shouted Sugar before storming off. She stopped after rounding the corner and let out the breath she was holding in. A giggle escaped her lips. This was easier than she thought it would be.

* * *

><p>Sugar was, once again, crouched outside of the choir room listening to what was going on.<p>

"I just want Blaine to know that we're not the Warblers. You know, we're not into the bells and whistles or the ball-hogging," said Finn. Sugar rolled her eyes. Finn should so not be talking. His girlfriend is her Royal Highness queen of ball-hogging.

"I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" asked Blaine.

"Well yeah, you set a bonfire in our courtyard," replied Finn.

"Actually, doorknob, that was an act of political protest," said Santana. Sugar snickered. Her mom was such a badass. She was surprised at how coolly her mom was navigating the situation considering the conversation Sugar had seen between her and Brittany the day before.

"Which leads me to the next order of business. Santana, you need to leave. It was you and the Cheerios who set fire to our piano. How could you do that?" said Mr. Schue turning to look at Santana. Sugar gasped quietly.

"Mr. Schue, Sue made me," said Santana.

"Brittany didn't do it," he replied.

"Well yeah, I was gonna help, but I dunno, I'm a water sign, so," said Brittany. Sugar wondered if her moms had rehearsed that.

"You're banned from Glee. Don't come back unless you can be as loyal to this club as the rest of the people in this room," said Mr. Schue motioning to the door. Sugar briefly saw a flicker of pain cross Santana's face before it was blank again. Santana got up to leave.

"You know what? I could use a break," she said. Brittany looked heartbroken as Santana walked across the room towards the door. Sugar had been so caught up in the moment that she didn't consider the fact that her mom was going to walk right past her as she left the room. Sugar stumbled back from the doorway, but it was too late. Santana saw her.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" said Santana. Sugar's eyes were wide. She knew to stay away from her mom when she was in a bad mood. She had also never spoken to her teenage mom before. It felt like her throat was closing up and no words could come out. She just opened and closed her mouth and stared at Santana. "Are you spying on us like some kind of Jewfro?"

"Uh, I, um," stammered Sugar. Recognition flickered across Santana's face.

"You're that annoying Asperger's girl, Sugar," she said. For some reason Santana's expression softened a bit.

"I, um." Sugar still couldn't form a coherent sentence. "Yes, Sugar."

"Yeah, who the hell thought naming their kid Sugar was a good idea. The Pillsbury dough boy and Mrs. Butterworth?" said Santana folding her arms. Sugar let out a loud giggle. Santana raised her eyebrows at her. "Whatever." Santana walked away. It took Sugar a second to recover from her giggle fit. She pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial one. The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

"What's the word," said Al.

"We're ready for phase two. They wouldn't let me into the glee club," said Sugar.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"How do I look?" asked Al, adjusting his tie. He was all dressed up to meet with Principal Figgins about funding a new show choir.

"Not like a janitor," replied Sugar, her mouth full of Fruit Loops.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," he said.

"Aren't you a little worried Figgins is going to recognize you?" asked Sugar. Al laughed.

"You think he would recognize someone on the custodial staff?" said Al.

"I guess not," said Sugar.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, let me grab my phone," said Sugar.

* * *

><p>"Mr. Motta, just so I'm clear - in exchange for this very generous donation, all I have to do is hire Ms. Corcoran to start a second show choir at McKinley which features your daughter?" asked Principal Figgins.<p>

"For which I will cover any and all expenses. My Sugar's a supernova, Figgie," said Al. Sugar was seated in Al's lap trying to play her part without laughing.

"You have a deal," said Figgins.

* * *

><p>Sugar was slinking around the halls as usual. She had been tailing Santana, but lost her when she went into a class. Sugar hadn't really been attending her classes. She had already taken more than half of them and she wasn't planning on doing homework while she was (hopefully) temporarily stuck in the past. She spent the majority of her time following her moms around. They were pretty easy to spot because they were always together and Brittany was usually jumping up and down and talking loudly to Santana who was usually smiling adoringly at Brittany. Since she wasn't planning on going to class, she had nothing to do between now and when she was supposed to be meeting with Shelby for her first voice lesson.<p>

Sugar rounded the corner and smacked into someone. She hadn't inherited Brittany's graceful genes and bumped into people and things a lot.

"I'm so sorry!" began Sugar holding up her hands apologetically.

"No, it's totally cool." Sugar realized the girl she had just collided with was Brittany. "Sometimes I get blinded by how rainbow everything is too."

"Um, yeah," said Sugar. Her heart was racing. Her interaction with Santana hadn't gone very well and she didn't want both her moms to think she was a total freak.

"Hey, you're Sugar!" exclaimed Brittany. "I liked your song in glee club."

"Oh, um, thanks," said Sugar. "You're probably the only one."

"No way. It was totally edgy," said Brittany shaking her head. "I told my, um, friend, Santana that I thought it was super cool and she agreed." Sugar frowned. She had heard that conversation and she was pretty sure that wasn't what Santana said.

"Well, thanks," said Sugar.

"Yeah, totally," replied Brittany smiling. Sugar didn't know what to say so she stood there looking like an idiot. She wanted her mom to think she was cool. "Well, I'm supposed to be meeting my friend in the bathroom by her classroom right now. Do you know Santana?"

"We met briefly," said Sugar.

"She's awesome. I think she would like you, but then again maybe not," said Brittany.

"Oh, okay."

"I'm going to go meet her now," said Brittany. "I would invite you, but we're totally gonna get it on."

"What?" said Sugar. Did Brittany go around blurting that out to anyone?

"Did you know that little mice live in the school and clean everything at night?" said Brittany. "Okay, bye."

Brittany spun around and walked away. Sugar followed her after a few seconds. Brittany was standing outside of Santana's classroom waving and making faces through the window in the door.

Sugar slipped into the bathroom. It was empty. She went into one of the stalls, locked the door, and sat cross-legged on the toilet. A few seconds later she heard the door swing open and footsteps echoing in the bathroom.

"God, Britts, class is so boring without you," said a voice that must be Santana.

"Yeah, well you know I can't take AP classes," replied Brittany.

"Sorry," said Santana quietly. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know San," said Brittany. "It's fine."

Sugar heard a weird smacking noise and then she realized they were kissing. Her moms had always been affectionate towards each other, but they were doing it like bunnies as teenagers. She swore every time they were together Sugar had to escape before things got too hot and heavy, but now she was trapped in the bathroom. She prayed that they weren't about to go at it with her a few feet away. Deep breaths were turning into pants. Sugar crammed her fingers into her ears trying to block out the noises.

"Britt," said Santana, clearly out of breath. Sugar hesitantly took her fingers out of her ears to hear what they were saying.

"Mm," replied Brittany. Sugar could still hear the sounds of lips against skin.

"Wait, B," said Santana. She heard a small sigh.

"Yeah?" said Brittany.

"The door isn't locked."

"So?"

"I don't want someone to walk in," said Santana. "We're at school…"

"But we have sex at school all the time," said Brittany candidly. Sugar so didn't want the details of her moms' high school sex life. Maybe watching them while they thought they were alone wasn't the best idea, but Sugar still couldn't quite tell if they were dating or not. They definitely weren't out at school. Sugar heard sniffing.

"Babe, don't cry. What's wrong?" she heard Brittany ask.

Usually it was Brittany that cried at everything. When Sugar was little and they used to watch Disney movies together, Brittany would always cry. She cried when Mufasa died in The Lion King, she cried when Meg died in Hercules, and she cried when Woody and Buzz fought in Toy Story. Even though she knew what was going to happen, she would always worry if Simba would defeat Scar, if Hercules would make it in time to save Meg, and whether or not Buzz and Woody would make it back to Andy's house.

Santana had to be the stoic one. She would hold Brittany during the scary parts and the sad parts of movies and of their life, but sometimes Brittany had to do the comforting. Sugar remembered the day she saw her cry the first time when she was seven, Santana had lost a patient and she came home sobbing. Brittany held Santana close and sang to her until she fell asleep.

"I'm just really stressed out right now B," said Santana taking a shaky breath.

"Tell me what's wrong," said Brittany. "If you don't tell me then I can't help."

"It's just being captain of the Cheerios and worrying about college and getting kicked out of glee," said Santana hiccuping. "It's too much to handle all at once. I feel like everyone wants something from me and I don't want to let anyone down. We never spend time together anymore because of Cheerios and my parents riding my ass about applications."

"Why don't you come over tonight then?" asked Brittany. "We can make a fort and you can help me with my Spanish homework."

"I want to Britt, but I told my dad I would write part of a college essay tonight so he could read it," said Santana.

"Okay," said Brittany softly. "I just miss you is all."

"I miss you too," Santana paused. "You know what? Fuck him. I'll come over and we can watch The Little Mermaid and cuddle."

"Really?" said Brittany excitedly.

"Definitely. I miss spending time with you B," said Santana. The bell rang. "Shit. We have practice in half an hour." Sugar waited until she was sure they were gone before leaving the stall. Between watching teenage Santana and the stories she heard from her moms, she hadn't expected Santana to be so sensitive.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Hey, Mercedes," called Sugar jogging down the hallway. Mercedes stopped and turned to look at Sugar. She looked a little surprised.

"Yeah?" said Mercedes. Sugar stopped in front of her and tried to catch her breath. "You're Sugar right? Of the purple pianos and the um… interesting audition."

"Yeah, that's me," replied Sugar. "So I heard you got booted from the glee club. Sucks huh?" Mercedes frowned and crossed her arms.

"Oh hell no. I did not get booted from anything. Mercedes quit," she said.

"Right, well, I hear you're good and I need more people for my new glee club and I think you're just the person," said Sugar.

"So it's true?" said Mercedes.

"That there's a new group at McKinley? Oh yeah, and we're going to crush the New Directions into the sad puddle of Lima-loser that they are," said Sugar. Mercedes seemed taken aback by Sugar's outburst. "Sorry, Asperger's. But you should go talk to Shelby."

"I'll think about," replied Mercedes.

* * *

><p>Sugar was walking down the hallway towards the lunchroom. Lately, she had just been buying lunch and sitting in Shelby's classroom since she had no one to eat with. As she made her way to the cafeteria, a long arm appeared around Sugar's shoulders startling her.<p>

"Hey Sug!" said Brittany with a huge grin on her face. Sugar suddenly had a weird feeling in her chest that she recognized as homesickness. She really missed her moms. Her grown-up, parental moms. She missed going out for ice cream with them on Sunday afternoons and grudgingly going to the movies with them. She missed Brittany's soft hands smoothing her hair down when she was upset and she missed Santana calling her _mija_.

"Hi Mo—" Sugar caught herself before she finished. "Brittany." Sugar noticed Santana walking a few paces behind them, arms crossed and glaring.

"San, say hi to Sugar!"

"Hi Sugar," Santana said grudgingly. She's so whipped, Sugar thought happily to herself.

"Um, hi Santana."

"So Sug, I'm sure you've heard by now. I'm running for class president," said Brittany, arm still slung across Sugar's shoulders.

"Oh yeah, that's cool. I'll vote for you," said Sugar. Her head was swimming a little. It was intense dealing with Brittany that close and Santana just a few steps behind them. Brittany squealed.

"Really?" she said. "Awesome. I knew you were awesome. I said that; didn't I San?"

"Yeah Britts," grumbled Santana. She was obviously disgruntled by Brittany making so much physical contact with Sugar. Sugar wished she could have reassured her that she had no reason to worry. For more reasons than she'd care to think about.

"I heard that your dad is in the matrix which is also super awesome. I love Keanu Reeves," said Brittany.

"She means mafia," said Santana. "And no one actually thinks that Britt."

"Either way, I bet your dad could help me with my secret project," said Brittany. Santana was getting more and more agitated. She clearly didn't like sharing Brittany.

"Britts," she said. "We should go." Santana must have been feeling really overprotective because she grabbed Brittany's hand. She never did that in public from what Sugar could tell.

"Yeah," said Brittany grinning happily at Santana. "Okay, bye Sugar!" Santana tugged her towards the cafeteria, glaring at Sugar as they walked away. Sugar let out a huge breath once her moms were gone. Talking to them took a lot out of her.

* * *

><p>Sugar casually leaned against a locker with a book in front of her face as she watched Mercedes make her move on Santana.<p>

"Hi Santana. How many solos did you get in glee club last year?" she asked sweetly. Santana turned to look at her.

"A few," replied Santana.

"One," said Mercedes. "Valerie, and I loved it."

"I was also the lips in Rocky Horror," said Santana.

"Listen, if you and I were in Shelby's group we'd get all of the solos and the duets. Our voices sound amazing together," said Mercedes. "Plus, it's an all-girl group." Sugar raised her eyebrows. Did Mercedes know about Santana and Brittany?

"And why would I care about all-girl?" said Santana defensively.

"It's all lady-power, all the time. I mean, Shelby's a great teacher. I'm hitting notes I didn't even know existed. She gets me, what I have to give. It feels good."

"You know honestly I wish I could, but I… somebody's gotta look out for Brittany. I mean, that special place where she lives, yeah it's beautiful, but someone has to help her across the street. I could never just leave her," said Santana. Sugar aww'd loudly on the inside at that one.

"Get her to come with you," said Mercedes with a sly look on her face. Sugar watched as Santana considered what Mercedes had said and nodded. She recognized the look on her mom's face. That was her planning face.

* * *

><p>"You should have seen her face," said Mercedes to Sugar, "she's in the bag."<p>

"Who's in the bag?" asked Shelby walking into the room.

"Santana," said Mercedes. "She's definitely going to leave the New Directions."

"Mercedes, I promised Mr. Schuester that we wouldn't try to steal any of his kids," said Shelby.

"It's his own fault Ms. Corcoran," replied Mercedes. "Santana is totally unappreciated. She's one of the best singers in the club and Mr. Schue has her and Tina oohing and ahhing behind the Rachel Berry show. Plus, if she joins she'll bring Brittany with her."

"Ms. Corcoran, you know that we need more members to be a real club," said Sugar.

"We're not really stealing anyone. We're just letting them come to us," said Mercedes.

"Fine, but you're not allowed to go after anyone anymore. Got it?"

"Yeah," said Mercedes.

* * *

><p>Sugar and Mercedes set their trays down at the table where Brittany and Santana were already seated.<p>

"Hey girls," said Mercedes. "How's the New Rejections treating you?" Santana rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, Mr. Schue's buttchin made an announcement and Blaine sang another vomit-inducing Katy Perry song," said Santana.

"I liked it," said Brittany. "Blaine's cute.

"He's gay Brittany," said Santana frowning.

"I know Santana," replied Brittany. They held eye contact for a few seconds before Mercedes interrupted them.

"Okay then. I'm gonna go get some more tots. Anyone want anything?" she asked. Everyone shook their head no and she got up from the table.

"What's your problem Santana," asked Brittany. Santana's eyes flicked over to look at Sugar who pretended to be very preoccupied with her lunch.

"Nothing, Britt. Let's talk about it later," she said.

"No, I want to talk about it now," said Brittany forcefully.

"Fine, if you know he's gay then why were you flirting with him during that song?" hissed Santana.

"What? I wasn't."

"Brittany, don't play dumb with me. I was there," said Santana glancing over at Sugar again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Brittany. Sugar was starting to panic a little. They couldn't fight. They had to be all lovey-dovey all the time or Sugar would never make it back to the future to see them.

"Fine. Forget it then," said Santana. Brittany reached across the table towards Santana's hand, but Santana pulled her hand off the table with a quick glance at Sugar. Brittany looked hurt.

"Are we still on for tonight?" asked Brittany quietly. Santana's expression softened.

"Of course, you know I love me some Breadstix," she said. Mercedes sat down at the table with a big tray of tots. Brittany held up five fingers on one hand and her pinkie on the other. Santana nodded and they linked pinkies. Now Sugar knew when and where their date was. She was going to have to crash it and make sure nothing went wrong.

* * *

><p>"Al, it's after six, can you please drive faster?" said Sugar impatiently.<p>

"If I crash this car and you die, I have no idea how that will affect the space time continuum, so be patient," he said. Sugar crossed her arms huffily and sank down in her seat, putting her feet up on the dash. She was relishing the freedom to put her feet anywhere she wanted. Santana was really strict about Sugar propping her feet up on things. Tables, dashboards, anything around the house really was off-limits. Al and Sugar sat in silence until they pulled into the parking lot of Breadstix.

"Are you coming in?" asked Sugar.

"No, I'll wait here," he said. Sugar nodded and hurried into the restaurant.

"How many?" asked the hostess.

"Oh, just one," said Sugar craning her neck over the woman's shoulder to look for her moms. The hostess raised her eyebrows.

"This way," she said. Sugar spotted her moms sitting in a booth in the middle of the restaurant. They were wearing their Cheerios uniforms she noticed. The hostess was leading her away from her moms.

"Um, excuse me," said Sugar. "Could I maybe sit at that table?" She pointed to one that was diagonal from Brittany and Santana's. The hostess raised her eyebrows again. She looked annoyed.

"If you prefer," she said. Sugar sat down at the table and put the menu up in front of her face. It was kind of loud in the restaurant, so Sugar couldn't catch everything they were saying. She heard something about Sour Patch Kids and gummy bears. Then, it came.

"Are we dating, or what?" asked Santana. Sugar sat forward in the booth trying to catch the words.

"Wait, isn't this a date?" asked Brittany. Then something about shrimp. "Wasn't last week when we were taking a bath together, wasn't that a date?" Sugar cringed a little, but then Santana looked away.

"Are you crying?" asked Brittany. Then, Santana said it was because she was happy.

"So, I should come back later then?" Sugar looked up, startled. A grumpy looking older waitress was standing over her.

"Oh, um, sorry," said Sugar. "I'll have water."

"That's it?" said the waitress.

"Um, yeah," said Sugar, trying to hear what her moms were saying. The waitress sighed and walked away and Sugar leaned forward again to listen.

"I wish you'd hold my hand," said Santana. Brittany smiled and reached across the table to hold Santana's hand. "But like, under the napkin."

Mission accomplished. Status of moms' relationship established. Time to move out.

Sugar stood up from the table right when the waitress came back with her water.

"I just realized I need to… check my Facebook page?" said Sugar. She scurried out of the restaurant and climbed into Al's car.

"They're together!" said Sugar. "But I'm worried that Mami is hurting Mom's feelings by not telling people about them."

"So that's phase three?" said Al, putting the car in drive and pulling out of the parking lot.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: My sincerest apologies for the mix-up earlier today. I know a few people ended up reading the wrong chapter. This was a crucial chapter and it's important that it comes in sequence, but I messed up the chapter numbers. Face-palm moment. I hope you enjoy this one. It's longer than usual. I'm also going to put up the chapter that I took down now that it's in chronological order. Sorry again!**

* * *

><p>Chapter Eleven<p>

"I just wanted to be on the winning team for once?" said Sugar, backing down to Santana.

It was her greatest success yet: getting Brittany and Santana to join her new glee club. Now, while she had them close, she could boost up their self-esteem enough to have Santana feel comfortable being with Brittany. She knew this was what Santana needed and she knew that Santana needed a little healthy competition to really feel like she earned it. She had to stand up to her one last time to solidify Santana as a leader of the group. Now, she could build up The Troubletones, build up Santana's confidence, and build up her cred with her moms until it came time for them to rejoin the New Directions so Brittany and Santana could get their friends back.

* * *

><p>Sugar, Mercedes, Santana, and Brittany were lying on the grass by the football eating their lunch. Since they had joined Sugar's glee club, they were hanging out more. Mercedes had taken to hanging around with Brittany and Santana when she wasn't with Shane. At first Sugar had thought it was because she had been trying to butter up her moms to join their show choir, but slowly she realized that Mercedes actually liked Santana and Santana actually liked Mercedes even if they showed it by arguing and teasing each other. They were very similar; both very determined with big voices and big personalities. They were both powerhouses in their own way. From what Sugar could tell, Santana didn't have any friends besides Brittany. Even the kids in the glee club stayed away from her. It was probably because Santana could be very prickly, but Sugar could see right through her exterior. It was clearly a defense mechanism. Sugar could see that her mom was terrified of everyone and she felt the need to hold them at an arm's distance so they couldn't hurt her. Everyone except Brittany, which was scariest of all for her. She kept Brittany so close that they were essentially the same person. They moved as one individual. When they walked, Brittany slowed her longer strides to match Santana's shorter ones. Once Sugar saw them silently coordinate a sneak attack on Quinn. As much as Brittany and Santana were one, they were equally polar opposites. Brittany was the light to Santana's dark. Brittany's kind praises balanced Santana's cruel insults. Brittany's wide gestures and bouncing footsteps were paired with Santana's crossed arms and stomping gait. It was so blatantly obvious that they were meant for each other. They were a package deal, two for one. It was so obvious that no one noticed it. They were hiding in plain view. To Sugar, it was the most natural thing in the world that they would be in love. It always amazed her that people never thought to ask. So listening to Mercedes, Santana, and Brittany talk about hooking up with guys at parties seemed inconceivable to her. But they were.<p>

Santana, her head in Brittany's lap, was recounting a story about hooking up with someone named Liam from the football team at a party her sophomore year. Brittany was playing with Santana's ponytail and interrupting if Santana told a part of the story wrong, since she had obviously heard it before. Sugar looked on, partially amazed at the fact that Mercedes could be so blind to Santana's possessive fingers messing with the ends of Brittany's Cheerios skirt, and partially horrified at this story of her strong, proud, don't-fuck-with-me mother recounting a story that made her sound like she didn't care about herself at all. Why wasn't this bothering Brittany? Her girlfriend was bragging about her sexcapades with random guys and making herself sound like a slut in the same process.

"Wait," said Sugar. "When you say hooking up, what do you mean?" Santana stared at her incredulously.

"Seriously? What do you think I mean?" said Santana.

"Well sometimes it means kissing and sometimes it means… other things," said Sugar crossing her arms. Santana laughed and reached behind her head to grab Brittany's calf.

"Ritchie bitch is a prude!" she said.

"I'm not!" exclaimed Sugar.

"You totally are," said Brittany knowingly. "I knew a girl who was one of those. She couldn't go out of the house for like, months at a time." Santana frowned.

"I think you're thinking of something else Britts," said Santana.

"Well I think it's good that _some_ of us have morals," said Mercedes. "It's fine to not to want to have sex Sugar."

"What? That's not what I said," said Sugar. She definitely didn't want to talk about sex with her mothers sitting right there, but it's not like she was frigid or something.

"Don't be embarrassed Sug," said Brittany. "I totally didn't lose it until I was in the eighth grade."

"I'm a sophomore," replied Sugar, inwardly cringing. Did her mom really lose her virginity in eighth grade?

"Well, whatever," said Brittany.

"I'm surprised I don't already know, but when did you lose it Santana?" asked Mercedes.

"At the same time I did!" said Brittany. Santana looked embarrassed.

"Not at the exact same time, obviously," she said. "Same year, eighth grade." Brittany and Santana made eye contact briefly that didn't go unnoticed by Sugar, but seemed to have gone right over Mercedes's head.

"So are you guys coming tonight?" asked Mercedes.

"We're thinking about it," said Santana.

"Thinking about what?" asked Brittany.

"Shane's party tonight," said Mercedes. "All the football guys are going to be there if that makes a difference to you." Sugar didn't say anything since she wasn't sure if she was invited.

"What about you Sug?" asked Brittany. "You should come with me and Santana! We could introduce you to everybody."

"Um," said Sugar, looking over at Santana to gauge her reaction.

"Actually, that could be fun," Santana said. "I'd like to see Hans Asperger over here trashed." She couldn't drink in front her moms, let alone _with_ her moms. That would be so awkward and so wrong on multiple levels.

"Come get ready before at Santana's house," said Brittany.

"I, um…"

"I hope you're not considering turning down an invitation to a party by the two hottest, most popular girls in school," said Santana, reaching up to link pinkies with Brittany.

"Okay," said Sugar.

"Awesome!" said Brittany.

* * *

><p>Sugar rang the doorbell of the Lopez's house and fidgeted on the doorstep. After a minute, a woman opened the door.<p>

"You must be Sugar," she said. "The girls are upstairs."

Sugar just stood there for a second taking in the view of her much younger abuela.

"You're so young," she blurted out.

"Thank you sweetie," Mrs. Lopez said, looking a little puzzled.

"Sorry, Asperger's," said Sugar, stepping into the house.

"Okay," said Mrs. Lopez, "First door on the left." Of course she knew that already. She visited her abuela's house every year.

Sugar went up the stairs and stopped in front of the door to Santana's room. She decided to knock.

"Come in," called Santana. Sugar opened the door and stepped in. Brittany was lying on Santana's bed and Santana was pulling on a dress. She glanced up and Sugar could feel her taking in her appearance.

"Are you planning on wearing that?" asked Santana.

"Yeah, why?" said Sugar. She had just picked an outfit out of her closet. She still wasn't too sure what was appropriate "modern" style.

"Oh, honey, no," said Santana. "I will not be seen with you if you're going to wear that."

"We can dress you up!" said Brittany, bouncing off the bed and going to root around in Santana's closet. "You're about the same height as San."

Brittany threw a few dresses on the bed.

"Good choices Britts," said Santana. "Try those on." Sugar slowly pulled off her shirt and pants. She was really self-conscious, which seemed silly. Her moms had seen her undressed more times than she could count. Hell, they had changed her diapers and given her baths. She slipped on the first dress. Brittany clapped her hands happily.

"Awesome!" she said. "Try these on too." She tossed Sugar a pair of boots that Sugar quickly pulled on.

"That'll do," said Santana. "You can use my makeup. My skin is a little darker than yours, but the colors should be fine." Brittany smiled approvingly at Santana. Santana flashed a look at Brittany.

"You can use this mirror," said Brittany. "San's gonna do my makeup in the bathroom." Sugar nodded and moved to fish through Santana's makeup bag. Santana followed Brittany into her bathroom. After a few minutes, Sugar thought she heard bumps and giggles from the bathroom. She took a step towards the door. They had left it open a crack and Sugar could see them in the mirror. They were definitely not putting on makeup. Brittany was sitting on the counter, her legs wrapped around Santana's waist, and they were hungrily kissing. Sugar heard one of them make a small sound and the other shushed her. It surprised Sugar how gentle Santana was when she was kissing Brittany. She had such a feisty personality, but then she kissed Brittany so tenderly. Brittany on the other hand was aggressive. Her hands were on Santana's waist, then the back of her neck, and then tangled in her hair, pulling her closer. Santana was the possessive one in public, but Brittany was the one who liked to mark her territory in bed.

Sugar stepped back, away from the door. She finished her mascara and studied her face in the mirror. She saw so much of her younger moms in her appearance now. She looked away.

"Are you guys ready?" she called. Santana and Brittany surfaced from the bathroom. Their makeup looked like it had been applied pretty hastily.

"Let's go," said Santana, straightening her dress.

* * *

><p>The party was already in full swing when Brittany, Santana, and Sugar arrived. The music was thumping and rowdy kids who had clearly been drinking were making asses out of themselves in and around the house. Sugar noticed her moms commanded attention from the minute they entered the house. Boys stopped to examine them as they passed. Santana would flash a flirty look at a few of the more attractive ones. Brittany happily followed Santana's lead. Sugar was pleased when she noticed a few guys giving her an approving once over.<p>

Santana pulled them through throngs of people straight to where the alcohol was. She had no trouble finding it. It was like she had an inner compass that pointed towards booze. She poured a couple different things into a red cups and handed them to Brittany and Sugar, taking a swig out of her own and shuddering a little. Sugar sniffed at her cup before taking a sip and almost choking.

"Careful, it's a bit strong," said Santana.

"A bit?" said Sugar, coughing.

"Grow up," replied Santana, rolling her eyes. Brittany had apparently already downed her first cup because she was getting a refill. Santana quickly gulped down hers to keep up and got a refill. Sugar stared down at the strangely colored beverage in her cup. Screw it. She tipped the cup back and let it burn down her throat. She tried not to gag. It was horrible. The room was beginning to tip a little. She giggled.

"San, let's dance!" said Brittany, grabbing Santana's hand and pulling her towards the living room where there was a crowd of sweaty people dancing. Santana let Brittany drag her into the middle of it. Sugar poured herself another drink and watched them. They danced closer and closer until they were pressed up against each other. Sugar sipped from her cup feeling more disoriented the more she consumed.

"Brittany and Santana are such teases," Sugar overhead a guy next to her say to his buddy.

"Dude, don't complain. Just enjoy the show," his friend said.

"I'm not complaining. I'm just saying. The two hottest girls in school dancing with each other just isn't fair," the first guy replied. Sugar frowned. Did they not consider the fact that maybe Brittany and Santana weren't interested in dancing with other people?

Mercedes came up behind Sugar, her boyfriend in tow.

"Hey girl!" she yelled over the music. "You came!"

"Yeah," said Sugar, "With Brittany and Santana."

"Where are they?" asked Mercedes. Sugar pointed to them dancing. "Oh, they always do that. They'll probably start making out pretty soon." Sugar turned to look at Mercedes. Was she serious?

"Really?" said Sugar.

"Oh yeah," said Mercedes. "They like the attention. I mean, the boys love it." She patted Shane who was looking a little like a lost puppy.

"I'm Sugar," said Sugar to Shane. They had never met before and it was his party so she thought she should introduce herself.

"Shane," he said.

"Great party," said Sugar. Mercedes smiled at her boyfriend then glanced back at Brittany and Santana.

"There they go," said Mercedes. A boy whistled from the other side of the room.

"What?" said Sugar, turning to look at Brittany and Santana. They were kissing on the dance floor. It looked a little sloppy. They were clearly pretty drunk.

"I told you," said Mercedes. "Ugh, I hate this song. I'm going to go change it. See you later Sugar!"

Sugar stared at Brittany and Santana after Mercedes left. They still had their tongues down each other's throats. She wasn't the only one looking. Most of the guys in the room were catcalling at them. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She pushed through groups of people until she got to them.

"Santana," she said. Santana just continued with what she was doing. "SANTANA!" Sugar put her hand on Santana's shoulder. She detached herself from Brittany. She looked absolutely livid.

"Don't touch me," she said. Sugar lifted her hands up in the air. Brittany was just staring at Santana looking lost.

"You don't need to do that," said Sugar. She was feeling a little dizzy. She had finished her second full cup.

"Do what?" replied Santana viciously, crossing her arms.

"Kiss her for attention. I know she means more to you than that," said Sugar. She knew she might regret her words, but they just kept coming.

"You don't know anything about me," said Santana. She grabbed Brittany's hand and pulled her off the dance floor and out the back door. Sugar followed them, but she kept tripping over people's feet, furniture, and rugs. She was already uncoordinated when she hadn't been drinking, so it was extra hard for her to navigate while tipsy. She made it outside, but she didn't see her moms anywhere. Then, she noticed a swing set farther back in the yard with two figures next to it. She stumbled through the backyard until she was within earshot of them. Brittany was sitting and Santana was crying in her lap. Brittany was stroking Santana's hair away from her face.

"Babe, it's okay," said Brittany.

"No it's not," said Santana. "Why can't I have what other people have? I just want to have a normal relationship where I can go to parties and dance and kiss, like a normal teenager."

"San, we can have all of that. If we tell people that we're together. Actually together, then we can have everything other people have," said Brittany.

"No, we'll never have that. People will always look at us differently, like we're a novelty and not a real thing," said Santana, lifting her head from Brittany's lap to look at her. "I wouldn't be able to handle having people treat us differently, treat you like you're worthless because of me."

"You know, it makes me feel worthless when you throw around our relationship like it doesn't matter. I don't want you to kiss me for show at a party. Sugar was right. I should mean more to you than that," said Brittany, standing up. "I should go. I can get a ride home with Mercedes."

"No, Britt," said Santana, suddenly desperate. She reached for Brittany's hand. "Wait, don't leave me please."

"Goodbye Santana," she said. She turned to walk away. Santana got up to follow Brittany, but she tripped.

"Brittany, please. I love you," she said, her voice ragged with sobs. "I'm sorry. I'm drunk. I need you. Please." Brittany stopped. Sugar saw her let out a sigh. She turned around and knelt down next to Santana who had stayed down when she tripped. She tucked a piece of hair behind Santana's ear.

"You're sorry?" she said.

"Yes, Britt. I'm an idiot and I'm drunk. Just ignore everything I said and did. You're my best friend. I never want to make you feel worthless," Santana said softly, her words still shaking.

"You drive me crazy," said Brittany, leaning down to kiss Santana.

"Bad crazy?" whispered Santana.

"Good crazy," said Brittany. "We should go home. Let's find Sugar."


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: Everything is back in order now. Here's the chapter early since I already accidentally released it. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and alerted the story. I'm really glad people are enjoying it. As I said before, I'm going to stick to canon until it becomes too difficult and I have to change some things around. As the story progresses I'm finding myself wanting to make up more about Sugar herself which might end up not being true in later episodes, so that's one possible deviation from the show. I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten so far, and again I am totally open to constructive criticism. This installment doesn't really do much to move the story along because it's primarily a flashback, but it was really fun to write and I hope everyone enjoys it now that it's in proper order. Leave feedback if you are so inclined.**

* * *

><p>Chapter Twelve<p>

"Hey guys!" said Mercedes, walking backstage with Sugar in her wake. Santana and Brittany were helping each other with their makeup.

"Hey Mercedes, hey Sugar! Thanks for coming guys," said Brittany happily.

"The costumes and everything look awesome," said Mercedes. "Artie did a good job."

"Yeah, Santana looks totally hot, doesn't she?" said Brittany, bumping Santana's hip. Santana looked embarrassed.

"You both look great," said Mercedes.

"I'm a Jet and Santana's a Shark," said Brittany. "She's more of a dolphin really." Brittany added after a second.

"Okay Britts," said Santana. "Let me finish your eyes."

"Break a leg girls," said Mercedes. "Shane's saving me a seat, so I need to go find him."

Sugar stood there awkwardly for a minute after Mercedes left watching Santana put on Brittany's eyeliner.

"Good luck guys," said Sugar quietly before turning to leave. Santana looked up.

"Thanks Sugar," she said surprisingly kindly.

"Ah, trusting with our hearts open."

Sugar was seated in the audience watching the performance of West Side Story. Her mom was killing it as Anita. Sugar wasn't usually a huge fan of old things and this was an _old_ musical, but she was surprised to find that she was thoroughly enjoying it.

Sugar remembered going to her first Broadway musical when she was nine. It was a revival of Wicked for its twenty-fifth anniversary. They had gotten tickets for opening night because Rachel Berry was playing the lead role of Elphaba. She remembered Santana making snide comments about Rachel always being an ugly little witch, which earned her a stern 'be nice' from Brittany. She remembered going into the big, dark theater and squeezing Brittany's hand tightly. The stage was huge and elaborate. Sugar remembered feeling very small and kind of scared.

"_Mom," whispered Sugar._

"_Yes, sweetie?" said Brittany._

"_Mom, it's dark," she whispered. Santana had her hand on Brittany's waist, guiding them down the aisle._

"_Right here," she said, squinting at their tickets and motioning to their seats. Sugar was still a little frightened and she didn't want to get stuck in the aisle seat. Brittany leaned over and whispered something in Santana's ear._

"_Sug, come here. I want my favorite daughter to sit next to me," said Santana. Sugar tried to roll her eyes like Santana taught her, but she still needed some practice._

"_Mami, I'm your only daughter," she said, moving to sit next to Santana. She was secretly grateful that she could sit between her moms where she felt safe._

"_Details," said Santana. "You're going to love this. I promise."_

_The screen began to rise, revealing the stage. Brittany draped her arm over the back of Sugar's seat. Santana reached over her shoulder and laced their fingers together, pulling Brittany's hand towards her and kissing it. Sugar's eyes grew wide as the bubble floated down to the stage._

"_Mami, look!" whispered Sugar excitedly._

"_I see mija," said Santana. Brittany smiled at her. 'I love you' she mouthed to Santana. Santana squeezed her hand._

After the play was over, Sugar and her moms were invited to the cast party. Kurt, Blaine, and Quinn were all there to support Rachel too.

"_Hey kiddo!" said Blaine scooping up Sugar in a hug._

"_Uncle Blaine! That was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my whole life!" said Sugar. "Where were you and Uncle Kurt sitting?"_

"_A couple rows behind you and your moms with Aunt Quinn. You guys had better seats than us!" said Blaine, setting Sugar down._

"_Probably because Rachel likes me best," replied Sugar, sticking her tongue out._

"_You know, I think you're right. I'm going to go find Uncle Kurt, but I want to hear exactly what you thought of the play a little later okay?"_

"_Okay," said Sugar. Her moms were talking to somebody she didn't recognize. _

_She was hungry, so she wandered over to a table where a bunch of different foods were spread out. She picked up something fancy-looking that she didn't recognize and popped it in her mouth. After swallowing it, she got the full taste and started coughing. It was disgusting. She grabbed one of the bottles of water sitting on one end of the table and took a swig from it. After recovering from the coughing spell, Sugar looked around the room. She spotted her Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine talking to people in one corner of the room. Rachel was surrounded by people trying to get her attention, but she was caught up in a conversation with Aunt Quinn. Sugar tried to wait patiently for her moms to finish their conversation, but all of a sudden she had started to feel a little weird._

"_Mom," she said, tugging on Brittany's hand. Brittany patted Sugar, but continued talking. "Mom!"_

"_Sugar, I'm trying to have a conversation," said Brittany gently. Sugar was really starting to feel faint now. She thought maybe she should sit down. The room was starting to spin. Sugar was getting scared._

"_Mom, Mom, I really don't feel good," she said._

"_Be patient sweetie," said Brittany._

"_Sorry, she's had a long day," said Santana, glancing over her shoulder at her daughter. Then, Sugar collapsed._

_Everything went fuzzy. There were brightly colored spots obstructing her vision. It felt like someone was pressing cotton to her ears and the sounds were muffled. She could tell people were shouting around her. She felt cool hands on her face and neck._

"_Mom? Mami?" she tried to say, but her words were running together and it was getting hard for her to breathe._

"_Someone call an ambulance!"_

"_Sugar, baby, can you hear me? Santana, what's happening?"_

"_I think she's gone into anaphylactic shock, but she's not allergic to anything."_

"_Sugar."_

"_Blaine, can you take Brittany to the hospital? I'm going with her."_

_Then, black. When she woke up, she kept her eyes closed. Her head hurt._

"_She's waking up."_

"_Sugar? Sweetie? Can you hear me?" _

_Sugar nodded slowly then let her eyes open. Her moms were sitting next to her bed. Brittany was holding her hand and her eyes looked red and puffy._

"_Hi," whispered Sugar. Her voice sounded hoarse. Brittany started crying and laid her head on Sugar's lap. "Mom, are you okay?"_

"_She's fine sweetie. We're just so happy that you're all right," said Santana, whose face was also wet with tears. Sugar smoothed Brittany's hair the way Brittany did for her when she was upset. Brittany sniffed loudly and moved to wrap her arms around her daughter._

"_I love you so much Sugar," she said, her voice still shaking with tears. A tall woman with curly brown hair wearing a white lab coat came into the room and closed the door._

"_Sleeping Beauty awakes. How are you feeling Sugar?" she asked._

"_My head hurts and I'm a little thirsty," she said. Santana picked up a cup of water from the table beside the hospital bed._

"_Here you go honey," she said, handing it to Sugar._

"_I don't know if your moms told you yet, but it turns out you're allergic to shellfish. The hors d'oeuvres you ate at the party caused an allergic reaction and you were having some difficulty breathing," said the doctor._

"_Oh," said Sugar._

"_We fixed you up though, and you're good as new. We just have to take your vitals one last time and we can let you go," she said._

"_Thank you so much Dr. Martin," said Santana, standing up to shake her hand._

"_It was my pleasure," she replied._

It was one of Sugar's favorite memories followed quickly by one of her least favorite. Sugar watched her mom singing on stage, her red dress swishing with her steps. She felt a pang of fear in her chest that was becoming a regular occurrence when she was near her moms. What if she couldn't make it back?


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Sugar arrived almost forty-five minutes early to Troubletones practice. She never had anything to do when she wasn't spying on her moms because she rarely went to class, so she often showed up early to practice and mulled things over while she waited.

They were meeting in the auditorium that day so Shelby could give them a lesson on stage presence. Sugar walked down the aisle towards the stage, but she stopped when she noticed she wasn't alone. Santana was sitting on the edge of the stage. Brittany was standing between her legs and they were majorly getting their make-out on.

Sugar had noticed that Santana and Brittany had been drifting around each other more carefully since the party. Santana was very gentle and affectionate with Brittany and very aggressive towards everyone else. Sugar suspected she was feeling defensive because of what happened at the party and also because of the mash-up competition that Shelby and Will had announced.

"I'm sorry I'm such an ass Britt," said Santana, pulling away from Brittany. Brittany smiled and ran her thumb across Santana's cheek.

"You don't need to apologize anymore," she said, tilting her head to softly press her lips to Santana's. "It's okay."

"I want to give you everything you need," said Santana, her voice beginning to shake.

"Hey, it's okay. I promise. Don't cry," said Brittany, cradling Santana's face in her hands. "All I need is you and I have you."

"I know you want people to know about _us_," said Santana.

"We don't have to do anything you're not ready for Santana," replied Brittany. "I want you to be happy, so we can wait to tell people if that's what you need."

"Britt, I feel like such a coward," she whispered. Brittany took Santana's face in her hands again.

"Listen to me. You're not a coward. You're brave. Like Simba," she said, "Or Pocahontas." Santana laughed a little through her tears.

"Thanks B," said Santana. She leaned in to kiss Brittany again. First it was slow, but it quickly began to heat up. Sugar decided it was time for her to leave. She took a step backward, but apparently she wasn't quite oriented with her surroundings because she stepped directly into an aisle seat. She fell backwards, her foot connected with the bottom of the folding chair making a loud clanging noise. Brittany and Santana pulled apart looking startled. The color drained from Santana's face when she saw Sugar pull herself up from the ground.

"I… I'm sorry. I came to practice early and I tripped. I'm going to go now though," Sugar said hastily. Santana pushed herself off the stage to her feet.

"How long have you been there?" she said, sounding a little angry, but also kind of scared.

"Not… not long. I didn't… I wasn't," Sugar stuttered.

"Spit it out," said Santana, more anger creeping into her voice now.

"I didn't… see anything. I'm sorry Santana," Sugar said, checking over her shoulder before taking a step backward. Santana took a step forward, crossing her arms.

"That's fucking right you didn't see anything," said Santana, taking another threatening step towards Sugar. Brittany, who had been staring at the floor this whole time, suddenly reached forward and grabbed Santana's elbow. Santana whipped her head around and it looked like she was about to lash out at Brittany, but instead they made intense eye contact for a second. Santana looked back at Sugar.

"I should go," said Sugar. Santana opened her mouth to say something, but Brittany squeezed her arm.

"San, don't. Please," she said. Sugar stared at Santana, waiting for permission to leave.

"I'm not doing anything Brittany," replied Santana coldly.

"I'm asking you to leave it," said Brittany. Santana blinked once and then let her arms fall to her sides.

"Just go Sugar," she said. Her voice sounded tired. Sugar pivoted on her heel and exited the auditorium as quickly as possible. She decided to skip Troubletones practice that day.

* * *

><p>"Hey, where were you during practice?" asked Mercedes, catching up with Sugar in the hallway.<p>

"Well, we all know I don't need as much practice as you guys, so I decided not to come," said Sugar. Presumably, Brittany and Santana hadn't said anything about her.

"Right," said Mercedes. "Well, Finn challenged the Troubletones to a game of dodgeball, so we're meeting in the girls' locker room to get ready in ten minutes."

"Cool! I love dodgeball!" said Sugar.

Dodgeball in her time was a videogame. People didn't play the real game anymore because it was much more fun to play the extreme virtual reality versions. Sugar loved to play the sports games on her Xbox Virtual-Dimension.

Sugar walked into the locker room ten minutes later.

"Hey Sug," said Brittany. "Here's your outfit." She tossed her a black gym shirt and shorts. The Cheerios that Santana had threatened into joining were also in attendance. Sugar wasn't sure what their names were. They all looked very similar, were really good at dancing, and only talked to each other. Sugar didn't make eye contact with Brittany or Santana. She felt extremely uncomfortable. The New Directions girls came into the locker room, already dressed.

"You girls ready to get beat?" said Rachel. Santana laughed and rounded on her.

"Listen up dwarf. First, we're going to pummel your pathetic selves on the dodgeball court. Then, we're going to rip you apart with our mash-up. So why don't you go psych yourselves up to lose because if I have to stare at your absurdly large nose for one second longer I will personally have to endz you," she said.

"That's not a nice thing to say Santana. I am perfectly comfortable with my appearance and I am confident in my team's ability to beat your group in dodgeball and in song," replied Rachel.

"I hope you asked your boy-thing to sit this one out. Jabba the Hut is a pretty easy target," said Santana.

"Okay Santana," said Mercedes. "Let's take it down a notch." Santana's eyes flicked over to meet Brittany's. Brittany shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"Let's go then girls," said Santana, motioning to the door. Everyone began to file out of the locker room. "Wait, Sugar. I want to talk to you."

Sugar froze. The rest of the girls, including Brittany, left the locker room. Sugar was terrified. What was Santana going to do to her now that they were alone? Santana turned to her. She didn't really look mad, but Sugar knew better than to take that as a good sign. She took a deep breath.

"What's up Santana?" she said.

"Listen," said Santana. "You need to tell me what you heard or saw in the auditorium."

"I'm so sorry about that. I didn't mean to pry," started Sugar.

"Just tell me," said Santana.

"Well, I heard you crying and the stuff you said to Brittany about… um, you guys," said Sugar carefully. Santana's face was completely unreadable. "And… I um, I saw you and Brittany… you know, kissing and stuff."

Santana must have been holding her breath because she let it out in one big whoosh.

"Look, I don't know what you think you know about me and Britt," she started.

"Oh, I don't think anything about you guys," said Sugar quickly.

"Just shut up," said Santana. Sugar looked down, embarrassed. "Britt and I are best friends. That's it, so we would really appreciate it if you didn't go around telling people about this since it's really none of your fucking business." Santana paused. It was clear she was really trying to be nice. She probably didn't want to risk offending Sugar.

"I wouldn't tell anyone," said Sugar.

"You just can't go around blurting out stuff about what Brittany 'means to me' or whatever, like you did at the party. I know you probably think you have some autistic kid sixth sense or some shit, but you don't know anything about us," said Santana. "Just watch yourself. You wouldn't want to do something that might upset me because I could make your life a living hell. You're new here. I could make or break you."

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I promise," said Sugar. "We're teammates." Santana raised her eyebrows, turned around, and walked out of the locker room into the gym.

The game of dodgeball was a lot less fun than the videogame. It actually hurt when the balls hit you in the face. They sang while they played which was a lot harder than it looked. It's easy to get out of breath when you're running and singing. Plus, Sugar didn't know the words to the song, so she just mouthed along. At the end of the game when Santana pummeled Rory with balls, Sugar felt really awkward, but she had to go along with what Santana did, especially right after their confrontation in the locker room.

* * *

><p>"I'm the leader of this group and I'm telling you, lay off those guys," said Mercedes. That was not going to go down well with Santana.<p>

"I'm sorry. The leader?" said Santana, approaching Mercedes. "Who died and made you queen, Aretha?"

"I brought you guys in and I came up with the idea for our mash-up, while you were wasting time trying to figure out how to make Finn Hudson cry," said Mercedes. "So, I nominate myself as president of the Troubletones. All in favor?" Sugar raised her hand. Al was always saying: Go with the flow.

"I'm not impressed by your campaign. You didn't put any posters up," said Brittany.

"Four in favor means Mercedes gets elected and she's right. We should all be focusing on winning because we are better, not meaner," said Shelby. "Mr. Schue and I both agreed on the ground rules. We play fair."

"I just don't have time for this kind of thinking," said Santana, going back to stand by Brittany at the piano.

"Well make time because you are a star member of this group and you need to represent," said Mercedes. Brittany leaned over to Santana.

"Stop the violence," she sang in her ear. "Come on." Santana laughed and began to smile.

"Okay, god, okay. Look I'll play fair," she said. Sugar smiled happily. Things were going according to plan.

They proceeded to the auditorium to choreograph the number they decided on: a mash-up of Adele's Someone Like You and Rumour Has It. Brittany was helping the Cheerios learn the moves, while Santana was helping Mercedes and Sugar. Santana seemed really on edge the whole time. Sugar wanted to say something to her, but she knew that would be counterproductive. Santana was constantly glancing over at Brittany helping the Cheerios. Brittany showed one of the girls a move, but the girl wasn't really grasping it. Brittany grabbed her arm and put it in the right position.

"Like this?" Mercedes asked.

"What?" replied Santana, turning back to them. "Oh, yeah. One, two, three, and switch." She demonstrated then went back to watching Brittany and the blonde Cheerio. Brittany still had her hand on the girl's arm, but it looked like they might just be talking now. Brittany laughed at something the girl said. Santana's jaw tightened. At the end of practice, Sugar dawdled and watched her moms. Santana was saying something in hushed tones to Brittany. She didn't look happy. Brittany was gesturing and then Santana rolled her eyes and stalked away.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped at Sugar as she walked past and out of the auditorium. Brittany slipped her Cheerios jacket on and slowly left with her eyes trained on the ground. She might have been crying, but Sugar couldn't tell. Sugar almost said something to her, but decided against it.

* * *

><p>Sugar looked on as Santana "apologized" to Finn in the hallway after Troubletones practice.<p>

"Hey Santana, why don't you just come out of the closet?" called Finn down the crowded hallway as Santana turned to walk away after tearing him a new one. Sugar gasped, clapping her hand over her mouth. Her mom had never told her that she had been outed in the middle of the hallway at school. Sugar felt sick to her stomach. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. "You know, I think I know why you're so good at tearing other people down. It's because you're constantly tearing yourself down because you can't admit to everybody that you're in love with Brittany and she might not love you back. That must hurt to not be able to admit to everyone how you really feel. You know what I think you are? A coward."

It took everything Sugar had in her not to fly at Finn and ripped his stupid spiked up hair from the roots. Not only was what he had just done so fundamentally wrong that it physically hurt Sugar to think about. He was also completely and totally incorrect. Of course Brittany loved Santana. Anyone with eyes could see that. Santana was afraid of how people would treat Brittany, her best friend and the girl she was in love with, if she told anyone what their relationship really was. In Sugar's mind, Santana was brave for letting herself feel love for Brittany and selfless for trying to protect someone she cared about when it clearly tore her apart on the inside. In that moment, Sugar wanted to hurt Finn. She wanted to hurt him until he was in as much pain as Santana because there was no way he had any clue about what it was like to be her. After doing irreparable damage, he just turned and walked away.

* * *

><p>After losing the rock-paper-scissors and enduring the New Directions shockingly bad Hall and Oates mash-up, it was finally time for the Troubletones to sing their song, but Santana was nowhere to be found.<p>

"Has anyone seen her?" asked Shelby.

"She's in Sue's office," said Brittany. "I would have waited for her, but we're kind of…" She didn't finish the thought.

"We can't go on without her," said Mercedes. "She's half the song." Then, Santana walked in. Her face was tear-streaked. Brittany rushed to her.

"San, what happened? Did you get kicked off the Cheerios?" she said. Santana shook her head and turned to Shelby.

"Where's my dress?" she said.

"Santana, are you okay?" Shelby asked. Brittany looked deeply hurt.

"My dress," is all Santana said. Shelby pointed to a hanger. Santana went to get dressed.

"Brittany, do you know what happened?" asked Shelby.

"No, I can't read minds," she said seriously.

Santana came out of the dressing room. She let Brittany put her hair in a side ponytail.

"Let's go," said Santana.

The song was amazing. Santana's and Mercedes' voices complimented each other perfectly and the dance was pulled off without a hitch. Sugar glared at Finn in the front row the whole song. Towards the end of the song, he whispered something in Rachel's ear. Apparently Santana noticed too because a second after the last lyric passed her lips, she jumped off the stage.

"What did you just say to her?" said Santana.

"I said I thought you were great," said Finn.

"You're lying," said Santana, shaking her head.

"No he literally just said that," said Rachel.

"Santana," said Mr. Schue, standing up from his seat.

"You tell her too? Everyone's gonna know now because of you," said Santana.

"The whole school already knows," said Finn. "And you know what, they don't care."

"Not just the school, you idiot, everyone."

"What are you talking—" Santana hauled off and slapped him. The sound of her hand connected with Finn's face echoed in the auditorium. Sugar's jaw dropped. Santana turned and ran out. Brittany followed her and Sugar followed Brittany. Sugar found them in the girls' locker room. Santana was sobbing and Brittany was holding her.

"Then he… he called me a coward," said Santana.

"Babe, why didn't you tell me?" said Brittany, stroking Santana's hair away from her forehead.

"I just… didn't want you to worry," she said. "And I was scared he was right after I saw you flirting with that stupid fucking bimbo during practice."

"San, I would never cheat on you," said Brittany. Santana nodded.

"So then when I went into Sue's office, Kurt's dad and Mr. Schue were there," she said. "There's this commercial. Some politician guy or a pizza guy or something made it. It's going to out me on TV."

Brittany's eyes got wide.

"How did a pizza guy know about me and you?" she asked.

"Fucking Big-Mouth Blubber Hudson," said Santana. "What if my parents kick me out?"

"They won't kick you out. They love you," said Brittany, trying to be reassuring.

"You've met my father. Dr. Manuel Lopez is not going to be cool with having a big dyke for a daughter," said Santana, sniffing.

"Maybe this is a good thing San," said Brittany. "Now you don't have to worry about telling people. Everyone will just know."

"Britt, you don't get it. My parents are going to disown me. Oh god, how am I going to tell my abuela?" said Santana.

"I could come with you," offered Brittany.

"Great. I'll bring my crazy girlfriend to help me tell my parents that I'm a flaming homosexual," said Santana. Brittany looked hurt. Sugar didn't like the direction this conversation was going in. At this rate her moms would be fighting in less than two minutes.

"You think I'm crazy," said Brittany softly.

"It doesn't matter Brittany! My fucking parents are going to fucking kick me out of my house and I'm going to end up on the streets," yelled Santana.

"There's no need to shout," said Brittany. "And I would never let you end up on the streets."

"God, Brittany, you're clueless. This is my fucking life," said Santana, standing up.

"Please don't insult me," whispered Brittany. "I just want to help you."

"Yeah well you can help me by just leaving me alone for a while," said Santana. Sugar gasped. Her moms very, very rarely fought, but when they did they would always talk it out. It's how they were. Sugar needed to fix this.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

For the past few days, Sugar had been planning revenge. She had a few ideas: Slip some wasabi into Finn's lunch, have Al "accidentally" hit Finn with his car, plant hard drugs in Finn's locker and tip off Figgins. Sugar would have just plain murdered him, but she wasn't sure how that would affect the flow of time.

"…Look I know not everybody outside of this room is as accepting and cool," Finn was saying.

It was really hard for Sugar to sit through this bullshit. Accepting and cool? Accepting and cool would be not outing Santana in the middle of a crowded hallway at school. Accepting and cool would be getting down on your knees and apologizing and asking for forgiveness for hurting her in the worst way possible. Accepting and cool would be not forcing her most intimate and private feelings into the spotlight to make yourself feel better about being an asshole. Accepting and cool would be supporting Santana. Accepting and cool would be allowing her to at least have an ounce of control in her life when she just had it all taken away from her. Finn was most certainly not accepting and cool and how dare he make this about him when it was his fault that all of it was happening. There was nothing he could do to make it up to Santana, but he could have started by apologizing. Sugar desperately wanted justice for her mom. She knew her mom to be a strong woman, but she also knew that not being able to do things on her terms could break her. She was scared for Santana. She could tell that Finn was just making things worse for her.

When Santana tore into Blaine and Kurt's performance, Sugar was freaking out. She could see Santana's barriers going up. It was clear she needed Brittany badly, but they had been skating around each other since their argument after the mash-off. Santana was too proud to ask Brittany for her help, and Brittany knew her too well to force herself on Santana when she was so vulnerable.

Sugar had watched Santana lose it when a little freshman girl bumped into her in the hallway. Santana could be mean, but usually Brittany would rein her in. Unfortunately for the freshman, Brittany was trying to give Santana her space. Coach Sue of all people ended up having to step in before Santana actually hurt the girl.

Sugar asked Al for advice. She was terrified that the pressure would drive Brittany and Santana apart and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Al had told her that things happened differently every time, so he wasn't sure what to do either. Sugar wanted to reassure Santana that her parents would be surprised, but supportive of her. She didn't have a way to do it without it seeming totally weird and suspicious, but she couldn't sit back and do nothing.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Santana," called Sugar. Santana was standing by her locker and when Sugar called her name, she could see her visibly tense. Santana turned slowly as Sugar approached her. When she saw who it was she seemed to relax a bit.<p>

"What do you want?" said Santana. Sugar stopped in front of her.

"I just wanted to talk to you," she said.

"If you're going to try to make me feel better then you should probably just go away now," said Santana. "I'm so not in the mood for another person to try and 'help me come to terms with myself.'"

"I wasn't…" said Sugar.

"Fine, then spit it out," she said, folding her arms across her chest.

"I just wanted to say that what Finn did was really awful," said Sugar, "And it's obvious that this really sucks for you, but I noticed that your best friend hasn't offered any real support. I mean if anyone should sing to you in glee it should be Brittany right?"

Santana looked down. It looked like she blinking away tears.

"I'm sorry if that's too forward," said Sugar.

"Yeah, it is," said Santana, "But since everyone is already in my business. Brittany and I are kind of fighting right now, so it's understandable that she doesn't want to sing a song for me."

Sugar sighed.

"Santana, you should just swallow your pride and ask for her help. You need her," said Sugar.

Santana cleared her throat.

"As much as I'd love to sit here and talk about my feelings with you all day," said Santana, "I have better things to do." She slammed her locker door shut and stalked away.

Sugar kicked the locker as Santana walked away. She was so screwed if her moms didn't sort this out. She decided to go see if Shelby was in her room to pass the time. She had some suggestions for sectionals.

Sugar froze outside of the door to Shelby's room. Brittany and Santana were sitting, chairs tilted towards each other, talking. Santana was holding Brittany's hands and it looked like they were both crying a little.

"I'm sorry I pushed you away Britt," said Santana. "The truth is I need you really badly right now and it's killing me that we're barely speaking to each other. I'm so scared.

Sugar let out an enormous breath. Thank god her mom had taken her advice.

"I was worried you were going to break up with me," whispered Brittany, voicing Sugar's biggest fear. Santana's eyes grew wide; she rested her hand on Brittany's cheek.

"God I'm so sorry. Of course not," said Santana gently. "I'm just overwhelmed and I was too proud to ask for your help."

"Are you sure?" asked Brittany, reaching up and lacing her fingers with Santana's against her cheek.

"Yes," said Santana firmly. "I love you Brittany."

"I love you too," said Brittany. "It's good we're not fighting anymore because I can't remember my locker combo." Santana laughed.

"11-25-34," she said before leaning forward and kissing Brittany.

"Thanks," mumbled Brittany against Santana's lips. They were kissing for a few seconds before Santana pulled away.

"Wait, Britt," she said. Brittany looked concerned.

"What?" she asked.

"I want to ask you something," said Santana. Brittany nodded. "Will you come with me when I tell my parents?"

"Really? Are you sure?" said Brittany.

"I need my best friend there for moral support, and I also want to introduce my girlfriend to my parents," said Santana. Brittany frowned.

"I thought I was your girlfriend," Brittany said.

"You are," replied Santana, looking puzzled.

"But I've already met your parents," said Brittany.

"Yes, but I've never introduced you as my girlfriend," said Santana. Brittany grinned at her.

"I told you San. This might not be entirely bad," said Brittany. Santana looked away for a second.

"Um, one other thing," she said, "If they… if they kick me out of the house."

"They won't," said Brittany. Sugar knew that Brittany was right, but she felt sorry for Santana. The uncertainty of her situation must be terrifying.

"Just wait Britt," Santana said. "If they kick me out, can I stay at your house tonight?"

"Of course," said Brittany, "But it's going to be fine." She squeezed Santana's hand.

"I just wish I knew when that stupid commercial was going to air so I can—"

Brittany kissed her, cutting her off. Sugar could see all their pain, fear, forgiveness, and love in the kiss. Hands tugging at each other's cheerleading uniforms, pulling closer together. They finally broke apart and just stared at each other; Brittany's clear eyes silently reassuring Santana.

"You're the bravest person I've ever met Santana," Brittany said quietly. Santana smiled and pulled Brittany in again.

"Hey Sugar."

Mercedes was coming down the hallway towards her. Sugar stepped quickly to the right, away from the doorway.

"Hey Mercedes," Sugar replied. She glanced towards Shelby's room, but she couldn't see inside any more from her angle. She wasn't sure how Santana would feel about Mercedes walking in on her and Brittany.

"You ready to start working on our set list for sectionals?" Mercedes asked.

"Yeah, definitely. We're going to crush the other teams," said Sugar. Mercedes started to walk towards the door. Sugar followed her closely, looking over her shoulder.

"Whoa there. Hey girlies," said Mercedes.

Brittany and Santana broke apart looking a little embarrassed. Sugar's stomach dropped. Mercedes had clearly seen them kissing.

"You girls ready to pick our songs for sectionals?" she said, walking into the room and sitting down at the piano. Sugar followed her into the room. She briefly made eye contact with Santana.

"Definitely," said Brittany, jumping up from her seat to stand at the piano.

"I was thinking we could do another mash-up, since we killed it last time," said Sugar. Santana got up from her seat and went over to stand behind Brittany. She wrapped her arms around Brittany's waist. It was like she was testing the waters with people she trusted.

"That's a good idea Sugar," said Santana. Brittany smiled approvingly at her.

"We need to get some practice in before Finn drags us back into the choir room for more of his lady music," said Brittany. "I thought his song was creepy. It was like he was trying to control your mind."

Santana laughed and leaned her head against Brittany's.

* * *

><p>"What about Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls?" suggested Quinn.<p>

"I just don't think folksy is really part of my repertoire, and considering the fact that I will be pulling most of the weight for this number, I really think we should choose a song that compliments my voice," said Rachel. Sugar rolled her eyes.

"Really Rachel? I guess I shouldn't be, but I'm surprised that you have managed to make Santana's coming out about you," said Mercedes.

"I'm mostly surprised that it took Santana this long to tell us," said Tina. "I mean it's not like we didn't all know about her and Brittany. Remember the 'sex is not dating' incident sophomore year."

"The 'sex is not dating incident'?" said Sugar.

"I wasn't privy to that particular conversation since I happened to be the subject of it, but Kurt told me about it later," said Rachel.

"Actually, it was about both of us," said Quinn.

"Whatever, basically, Brittany accidentally told us that she and Santana were having sex on a party line before sectionals sophomore year," said Tina. Sugar cringed.

"Honestly, I completely forgot about that," said Mercedes. "I remember the first time I knew for sure though. I was going to Breadstix. I pulled in and I saw them standing at one end of the parking lot in the shadows. It looked like they were arguing about something, which surprised me. I didn't know those two ever fought, but they were yelling at each other. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but Brittany started crying. Then Santana jumped at her and they started kissing. That was my moment."

"I really got it after that phone call, but I think the first time I really knew was when I heard Santana apologize to Brittany," said Tina. "I only caught the end of the conversation, but I had never heard Santana apologize to anyone before. She said she was sorry and then listened to what Brittany had to say. I knew then that Santana must be in love with her because there was no other explanation."

"What about you Quinn? You used to be really close with them," said Mercedes. Quinn looked down.

"I always had my suspicions," said Quinn. "But Santana actually… well she tried to tell me one time. I really regret the way I handled it, but we were young. I didn't know what I was doing at the time."

Quinn recounted the story for the girls.

_Music was pounding through the house. Quinn was beginning to get nervous. She had gone over to say hi to Finn, but now she couldn't find Santana and Brittany. It was the first party of the school year and the only freshmen there were her, Santana, Brittany, Puck, and Finn because they had all made varsity for cheerleading or football. As a Cheerio, she was expected to uphold certain standards in and out of school. Quinn knew from experience that Santana and Brittany got a little wild at parties, so she took it upon herself to keep track of them. Unfortunately in the five minutes she had spent flirting with Finn, Santana and Brittany had managed to disappear. Quinn walked into the kitchen where she spotted Puck mixing drinks for Santana and Brittany. They were laughing loudly and having a hard time standing up straight already. Santana had her arm around Brittany's waist, apparently holding her up. It was normal for them to be touchy-feely. _

_Quinn had only known them since cheerleading camp the summer before they all started at McKinley High School, but Santana and Brittany had been best friends since elementary school. Quinn was a little jealous of how close they were. She didn't have a friend like that, but this was her time to shine. She had escaped her past and now she was lined up to be head cheerleader and the most popular girl in school. She just had to play her cards right. Quinn knew that every queen bee needed loyal followers. Santana and Brittany were perfect sidekicks. They both looked the part and were willing to do what it takes to get to the top, even if that meant being the two and three to Quinn's number one. Quinn had an image to adhere to and so did her two closest friends. They had to play their parts for Quinn to get where she wanted to be: the top of the Cheerios pyramid and the social pyramid. So when Santana and Brittany got drunk and started dancing suggestively together at the first big football house part of the year, Quinn had to step in for her own sake._

"_Santana!" yelled Quinn over the music, pulling her away from Brittany. "What are you doing?"_

"_I'm dancing Q. What the fuck does it look like I'm doing?" shouted Santana. Brittany had stopped dancing and was staring at Quinn and Santana._

"_You need to pull yourself together," said Quinn. "People are staring at you and Brittany."_

"_It's because we're the hottest pieces of action in this joint," said Santana, gesturing widely at the room and almost falling over._

"_S, you're drunk," said Quinn. "Come with me and I'll get you cleaned up." Quinn tried to take her arm and guide her away from the crowd of people dancing._

"_I don't need your fucking help Fabray," said Santana, throwing Quinn's hand off her and stumbling forward._

"_Whoa there Lopez," said Puck who had just walked up, holding two cans of beer in his hand. "I brought you a drink, but it looks like you don't need one."_

"_I'm going to take her upstairs to freshen up for a second," said Quinn, putting her arm around Santana and hoisting her up._

"_Well, I'll be waiting," said Puck, waggling his eyebrows at them. "Call me if you ladies need any help."_

"_In your dreams," muttered Quinn, pulling Santana towards the stairs. Santana's head was resting on Quinn's shoulder and she was dragging her feet._

"_Q," she groaned._

"_I got you," said Quinn. They were almost to the staircase, but Santana was like a deadweight._

"_Quinn, wait," said Santana._

"_What?" snapped Quinn._

"_Where's Brittany?" Santana asked. "I want her to come. I can't leave her by herself."_

"_She's going to be fine without you for five minutes," replied Quinn._

"_No," said Santana, pushing Quinn away. "I can't leave her. She'll get confused with all the people and the alcohol."_

_Quinn and Santana turned and scanned the crowd of people. They spotted Brittany. She was dancing close up against Puck._

"_What's she doing?" said Santana softly. Puck leaned down and kissed Brittany. She kissed him back. They swayed, pressed up against each other, kissing. Santana turned around and began to stumble up the stairs._

"_Santana, wait. Let me help you," said Quinn, following her. Finally, they got upstairs and went into the first empty room they could find. It was a bathroom. Santana sat on the edge of the bathtub with her face in her hands._

"_S, you and Britt can't get this sloppy drunk at parties. It makes all of us look bad," said Quinn. Then she realized Santana was crying. "Hey, what's wrong?"_

"_They were kissing," whispered Santana._

"_That's what I'm saying," said Quinn, sitting next to Santana and putting her arm around her. "If you two get so drunk that you're making out with random people—"_

"_No. You don't understand," Santana said through tears. "That's not how it's supposed to be."_

"_Why?" asked Quinn. "Do you like Puck? Oh my god, you do! Did you tell Brittany?"_

"_It's not about Puck," said Santana. "Well it is, but not really."_

"_I'm not following," said Quinn, genuinely confused now._

"_I don't want her to kiss other people," said Santana._

"_It's normal to be protective of your best friend," said Quinn. Santana shook her head._

"_It's not that. Just forget it Q," said Santana, rubbing her eyes._

"_I want to understand. Please, just explain it to me," said Quinn._

"_She's not just my best friend. She's mine," Santana said quietly, her words slurring a little. She was still very drunk. Quinn sat for a second thinking over what Santana had just said. It took her a second, but then it hit. Santana loved Brittany as more than just a best friend. Was Santana gay? Quinn stood up, walked over to the sink, and leaned against it. She took a deep breath in. This was not how it was supposed to be. The most popular girls in school were not supposed to be lesbians. This didn't fit into Quinn's view of how high school is supposed to work._

"_So you're in love with Brittany," said Quinn. "Are you gay?"_

"_What? Quinn, I don't know," said Santana, slumped over a little. "My head hurts. I shouldn't have said anything."_

"_Look S, High school is a pretty straightforward place. The popular girls aren't gay for their best friend," said Quinn. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"_

"_I'm not stupid. I know that," said Santana. "I thought... You're one of my best friends. I just thought…"_

"_It's fine that you told me, but keep in mind that we could be at the top of this school… or we could be at the bottom," said Quinn. "There are plenty of Santanas waiting in the wings ready to be you. We should go back downstairs."_

"She was so drunk," said Quinn quietly after finishing the story. "I don't even know if she remembers, but I regret saying those things to her so much. I was fourteen years old and I was scared of being Lucy Caboosey again, but I could never take that back."


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: This took a lot longer to write than it usually does. I lacked inspiration for a while. I might start taking some liberties with canon because that was part of why it was hard to write. Writing original stuff is fun, but then I have to think about whether that really makes sense given the interactions we have actually been provided with in the episodes. All of that being said, I will attempt to update again within the week. Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

><p>Chapter Fifteen<p>

The girls just stared at Quinn.

Rachel patted her on the shoulder. "It's okay Quinn," she said.

"Yeah, sometimes people say things without realizing the impact it could have on others. You couldn't have known how it would affect Santana," said Tina. Mercedes nodded in agreement.

Sugar stood in silence. She wasn't sure how to process this information. Quinn was both her moms' best friend. After Yale, Quinn had moved to New York to go to Columbia Law. Since then, Aunt Quinn had lived in the same building as Sugar and her moms. Sugar had known Quinn her entire life, but she had never known that she was the first person her mom came out to. And she definitely hadn't known that Quinn had shut her down. Sugar wasn't sure how to feel about this news.

"I don't know how to fix it," whispered Quinn, her voice shaking.

Finally Sugar found her voice in a burst of confidence. "I don't think you can," she said, "But you can be there for her now."

"Hey guys!" said Brittany, skipping into the choir room. "Is Santana in here?"

"No, she's not with you?" said Tina. Brittany's face fell.

"No," she said. "What are you all doing? Is this some kind of secret society?"

"What? No," replied Rachel.

"Oh, I gotcha. It's not," said Brittany, winking at them. Mercedes shook her head.

"Actually, we wanted to talk to her. Maybe we can come help you look for her?" she said.

"Totally," said Brittany. "We can be the Spy Kids."

"Sure," said Mercedes.

* * *

><p>Sugar was sitting in the choir room after the girls saved Santana from the asshole rugby guy with a rendition of I Kissed A Girl. Sugar was ecstatic that her moms fully included her in the number even though she wasn't really a part of the group of girls. All of the other girls were seniors except Tina, so it was hard for Sugar to really be part of the group. They were all concerned with college and boyfriends (or girlfriends in her moms' case), while Sugar was really only concerned with her moms and getting back to the future. Sugar didn't have much opportunity to make friends because she didn't attend her classes or participate in clubs or sports outside of glee. She was so happy to be included in the posse of New Directions and Troubletones girls that she wasn't too scared to be outgoing during the song. After the song was over and Santana told the club that she was going to talk to her abuela, the kids filed out of the choir room.<p>

"Hey, Sugar!"

Sugar turned around. "Hi Brittany," she said.

"I wanted to say thank you for singing and dancing with us today. It really meant a lot to Santana," said Brittany.

"Yeah. It was fun. I rocked it," replied Sugar. "Where is Santana?"

Brittany frowned. "She said she had something to do before Cheerios."

"Right," said Sugar.

"So yeah, I was thinking maybe I could give you some pointers on your dance moves," said Brittany, her smile returning. Sugar considered saying something obnoxious, but decided she'd rather just be herself around Brittany.

"Yeah, okay," she said.

"Great!" said Brittany happily. "You can come over tonight. Santana's busy."

Brittany gave Sugar a hug before skipping away.

* * *

><p>"Just try relaxing your arms a bit."<p>

Sugar sighed. "Mo—" Sugar stopped herself and cleared her throat. "Brittany, I'm never going to be able to do it like you."

"That's your problem," said Brittany. "Dance isn't about being someone else. It's about being yourself."

That was a familiar mantra in the Lopez-Pierce house. Sugar's moms were always telling her to be herself, but sometimes she'd much rather be someone else. That's why it was so fun to pretend to be an obnoxious, rich brat. She could become someone completely different from herself. It was exhausting though.

"I'm pretty sure this is useless. My dance skills are serviceable enough," said Sugar, flopping on Brittany's bed.

"Don't give up, never give up," singsonged Brittany. She sat down on the bed next to Sugar and crossed her legs. Sugar looked over at Brittany and raised her eyebrows. "Holes. Duh. A Disney classic."

"Yeah," said Sugar. She had never heard of it. "I knew that."

They sat in silence for a second.

"So Sugar, do you have a significant other?" asked Brittany. Sugar blushed. Brittany had always liked to pester Sugar for the details of her romantic endeavors, which were very few thus far.

"Nope," said Sugar.

"Really?" said Brittany. "That's too bad. It's awesome."

"I'm only fifteen. I don't really need to be in a committed relationship," replied Sugar. Brittany laughed.

"Whatever you say Sugar," she said.

"When did you and Santana start dating?" Sugar asked. Brittany stopped to think.

"That's a hard question. It's complicated," she said.

"But you love her?" asked Sugar.

"Yeah, of course," Brittany said, laughing a little.

"How do you know though? You're only eighteen," said Sugar.

"Hm, well I know because she's my best friend, and because it feels like marbles are rolling around in my stomach when she's near me, and because I always want to be with her, like all the time, and because everything she says sounds like music," said Brittany. Sugar nodded.

"Speaking of Santana, where is she?" asked Sugar.

Brittany stretched out on the bed and sighed.

"She's telling her abuela tonight," she said.

"She didn't ask you to go with her?" said Sugar.

"No, I think she needed to do this one herself," replied Brittany.

"But it went well with her parents?" asked Sugar.

"They were okay," said Brittany. "They weren't mad. They just weren't super supportive. They kind of just said that it was okay and then let it go."

"Why didn't she say that during glee club?" asked Sugar.

"I guess she just doesn't want any more attention than she's already getting," said Brittany.

Then there was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Come in," said Brittany, sitting up. The knob turned and Santana was standing in the doorway. "Santana?" Brittany stood up and crossed the room. Sugar could see the tear streaks on Santana's cheeks. Brittany wrapped her arms around Santana and pulled her in close.

"She kicked me out," whispered Santana. Brittany pulled back and reached up to wipe away Santana's tears.

"What did she say?" asked Brittany softly. Both of the girls seemed to have forgotten about Sugar who was frozen on the bed.

"That it was sinful and I shouldn't have told her," Santana muttered through soft sobs. Brittany took Santana's hand and led her towards the bed.

"San, Sugar is here," said Brittany quietly. Santana's eyes met Sugar's briefly. A stab of fear went through Sugar, but instead of freaking out like Sugar expected, Santana just nodded. Sugar rose from the bed as Brittany and Santana sat down. Brittany tucked a piece of hair that had sprung free from the clip behind Santana's ear.

"She said she never wants to see me again," mumbled Santana.

"Maybe she just needs time to cool down," said Brittany gently. Brittany slid her fingers through Santana's and held her hand tight. Santana closed her eyes and shook her head.

"You didn't see her. She hates me," said Santana, burying her face in Brittany's shoulder and sobbing. Sugar could see the tears soaking into Brittany's shirt. She felt sick for Santana. Brittany stroked Santana's hair.

"Brittany's probably right. She just needs time to wrap her head around it," said Sugar softly, trying to be reassuring. Brittany glanced at Sugar and gave her a weak smile.

"She's never going to forgive me for this," said Santana, her voice muffled.

"There's nothing to forgive San. You didn't do anything wrong," said Brittany.

"I should've just kept my mouth shut. I'm pathetic," whispered Santana. Brittany looked worried.

"Santana," she said, resting her hand on Santana's cheek. "You are not pathetic. Please don't think that." Santana muttered something into Brittany's shoulder, but Sugar couldn't hear what she said. Brittany glanced up at Sugar.

"If you don't mind Sugar, I think it's probably best if you go home. We'll see you tomorrow okay?" said Brittany. Sugar rose from the bed and left the room, softly shutting the door behind her. Sugar paused outside of the door. She heard muffled sobs and gentle shushing. Their murmured words were hard to discern through the door.

"No, Santana. Don't say that. Please." More muttering. "I'm always going to love you, okay? No matter what anyone else says."

* * *

><p>When Sugar walked into the choir room the next day, she was surprised to see Santana smiling and talking to Mike and Tina. Brittany waved to Sugar when she entered and motioned to the empty chair next to her. Excited, Sugar took the seat to Brittany's left.<p>

"Hey Connie Corleone," said Santana from behind her. Sugar glanced over her shoulder then flipped around in her chair.

"What?" she asked.

"Did you hear the news?" asked Santana.

"No?"

"Britts is the newly elected senior class president," Santana said, smiling at Brittany, who winked back at her.

"Okay guys," said Mr. Schue, clapping his hands together. "Shelby and I just wanted to say that you really inspired us."

"When we face off at Sectionals, it will be with more empathy and a deeper understanding of each other," said Shelby.

"That's right, that's right," said Mr. Schue. Sugar noticed Artie mutter something to Finn.

"Mr. Schue," said Kurt, raising a finger in the air.

"Yeah." Mr. Schue motioned for Kurt to take the floor.

"As the son of Ohio's recently minted congressman," Kurt said. "And to dispel any lingering clouds of suspicion, I would like to personally and publicly congratulate president Brittany. The people have spoken and they want you Britt. They want Pixie Stix. Rule wisely. Rule fabulously."

Of course Sugar had voted for Brittany. She wasn't entirely sure how capable Brittany was for the role, but she knew her mom would be amazing either way.

Brittany got up and hugged Kurt.

"You're still the most unicorn of them all," she said. There was more applause.

Then Santana got up and sang. It was beautiful. Sugar was riveted.

* * *

><p>After school, Sugar was sitting on the steps in front of the school waiting for Al to pick her up. A voice from behind her startled her.<p>

"Hey." Santana was standing behind her. "Is your dad coming to get you?"

"My dad?" Sugar blurted out without thinking. "Oh! My dad. Yes. I'm waiting for him."

"I can give you a ride if you want," Santana said, adjusting her backpack straps on her shoulders. "I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Really? Thanks," said Sugar, standing up. She pulled her phone out and texted Al not to come get her.

"It's no problem," said Santana. They started towards the student parking lot in an awkward silence.

"Where's Brittany?" It was the first thing that occurred to Sugar to say.

"She had a doctor's appointment this afternoon," Santana said.

"You guys didn't have Cheerios?" Sugar asked.

"No, Sue's in a rage over losing the election. She canceled practice thank god," Santana replied. They reached Santana's car. Sugar put her backpack in the trunk and climbed into the passenger's seat.

"You're going to turn left out of the parking lot and then right at the second light," Sugar said.

There was a long silence. The only sound was the clicking of the turn signal and Santana's fingers impatiently tapping on the steering wheel. Sugar could tell she was about to say something.

"So I just wanted to say thank you," Santana said at last.

"Thank me for what?" asked Sugar.

"For your advice," she said. "About asking for help." It was obvious she wasn't used to trying to be nice.

"Sure," Sugar said, smiling a little. "Oh, it's the next right here."

"Okay."

They sat in silence again until they pulled into Sugar's driveway. Santana put the car in park.

"Thanks for the ride," Sugar said, unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Yeah, whatever," Santana said. Her icy demeanor was back. "Listen, just because we had this little chat and everything doesn't mean we're besties now or something."

"Right, okay," Sugar said. "Thanks again. For the ride."

Santana nodded. Sugar climbed out of the car and headed into the house.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: So this update didn't take forever or anything. Sorry for the extra, extra long wait. I've been unbelievably busy for several weeks now. I probably won't be churning out chapters again until the end of the school year. Hopefully I'll be able to do one every two weeks or so through May, but who knows with my schedule. I'm probably going to break away from canon in the coming chapters too. I'll continue using the major plotlines and such, but I'm going to have to tweak it. Plus I have a feeling that things in the older chapters will begin to contradict the episodes. Personally, I like canon, so I'm going to try to use it as much as possible, but it's really hard and it takes twice as long because I'm always looking up stuff to verify that it's correct. I hope you enjoy this update though! It's a little bit of fluff and a little bit of angst. It always bugged me that after Santana had her whole "coming out" story or whatever that was, they completely ignored all the struggles she must have gone through after it. Especially having her face out there on a commercial, so this addresses that a bit. Anyway though, getting a little notification that I have a review is always a good incentive to get me writing and it really brightens my day, so that's always appreciated. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter Sixteen<p>

"I still don't get why no one gets creeped out by the weird air of incest in this movie," Sugar said, tossing pieces of popcorn in the air and catching them in her mouth.

Al thought it would be fun and possibly educational to have a Back to the Future marathon with Sugar, so they were sitting in the big, cushy movie seats in Al's home theater with bags of popcorn strewn everywhere. Sugar had been talking all through the movie. Sugar usually watched movies with Brittany because they liked to discuss what was happening onscreen, but it drove Santana crazy. She would sigh heavily whenever Sugar and Brittany would begin whispering and eventually get up and storm out of the room. Brittany would always follow her and coax her back.

It seemed like Al didn't really mind that Sugar liked to talk during the movie.

"I'm not sure Sugar," Al replied. "I guess I didn't really think about it."

"If it was you, you'd think about it," she said. "Trust me."

Then, Sugar's cellphone began to buzz. She picked it up. The screen flashed Brittany's name. Sugar answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sugar, it's Brittany!" Brittany's voice on the other end said.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Britt, this is a bad idea," another voice chimed in from the background. It sounded like Santana.

"Hush. We were wondering if you wanted to go the mall with us," Brittany said.

"Oh, why?" Sugar was surprised Brittany and Santana randomly wanted to hang out with her.

"Because you're our friend, silly! We're getting dresses for San's cousin's quinceañera. Troubletones bonding!" Brittany said.

"Oh, so Mercedes is coming too?"

"No, she's busy."

"Brittany, she doesn't want to. Just forget it."

"Santana, stop being so self-conscious. She wants to come."

"I bet she can still hear you."

"You don't need to be shy San. She's our friend."

"Um, hello?" Sugar said. Santana was whispering and Brittany sighed.

"Sorry. Sugar?"

"Yeah. I'd like to go… If you guys still want me to," Sugar said.

"Really?" squealed Brittany. "I told you San. Okay, we're gonna come get you then."

"Okay, see you soon?"

"Yay! Bye!"

Sugar hit the end button and tossed her phone onto the chair next to her.

"Who was that?" Al asked.

"It was Brittany. She wants me to go shopping with her and Santana," Sugar replied.

"That's nice. How are they doing?"

"Good, I think. I told you about the fight a little while ago, but it's been fine since then," Sugar said.

"Good, good. Like I said before, when it's time you'll know. You've just got to stick it out until then," Al said.

"Yeah," Sugar said. "I really miss them. Even though I see them all the time, it's like it's not really them."

"That's because those girls aren't your moms yet," Al said.

"I know," Sugar replied. "I should get ready."

* * *

><p>Sugar was searching for her other shoe when the doorbell rang.<p>

"Can you get that?" Sugar called down the stairs. She heard muffled voices then footsteps on the stairs. There was a knock on the bedroom door.

"Hey, Sug. Can we come in?" Brittany said.

"Yeah," Sugar called. She kicked aside a pile of clothes, hoping to find the missing shoe underneath, when Brittany and Santana came into the room. Sugar always thought it was a little weird seeing them in street clothes since they were in their Cheerios uniforms like 24/7.

"Whoa, it looks like a bomb went off in here," Brittany said. "It's like a floordrobe."

"Sorry?" Sugar said.

"It's when your entire wardrobe is on the floor," Santana replied, sitting on the edge of Sugar's bed. "This is a fuckin' nice room. You shouldn't trash it."

Sugar smiled a little. That sounded like the Santana she knew.

"Sorry," she said again.

"I mean whatever. I'm not your mother," Santana replied.

Sugar snorted loudly. Santana glanced over at Brittany and raised her eyebrows.

"Are you ready to go?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, I just can't find my other shoe. It's blue. Looks like this one," Sugar said, holding up the shoe in her hand. Brittany leaned down and scooped something up.

"Is this it?" she asked.

"Yeah! Thanks," Sugar said. Brittany tossed it to her and she shoved her foot into it. "Ready!"

"Let's go then. I'm not getting any younger," Santana said, standing up. Brittany crossed over and slid her hand into Santana's. Probably unconsciously, Santana's eyes briefly flicked over to Sugar before she smiled at Brittany and tugged her out the door. Sugar followed them down the stairs.

"Bye Al—DAD. Dad. Bye Dad!" Sugar called.

"See ya Sugar," Al called back.

Brittany climbed into the passenger seat and Sugar sat in the back. Sugar watched happily as Brittany reached over and grabbed Santana's hand as soon as they were both sitting. Brittany ran her thumb back and forth across Santana's knuckles.

"So Sugar," Brittany said, turning around in her seat to look at her, "How's sophomore year going?"

"Fine I guess," Sugar replied. She didn't want to seem like a complete loser around her moms. It felt weird to still be so embarrassed around them after all this time. She was never sure what to say to them.

"Santana and I were talking about sectionals. We totally loved your mash-up idea and we were trying to think of songs," Brittany said. Sugar glanced at Santana in the rearview mirror and made brief eye contact before Santana fixed her eyes back on the road. Brittany's thumb was still brushing across Santana's knuckles.

Sugar had noticed that since everyone had found out about her and Brittany, Santana had seemed much more peaceful, especially around Brittany. She was content letting Brittany take over the conversation when they were together. Of course she was always ready with snippy commentary whenever something happened during Troubletones practice, but she seemed much less tense. And Brittany was radiating happiness. Every time Santana reached for her hand in the hallway, Brittany's smile was blinding.

"Sug?" Brittany's voice broke through Sugar's thoughts and startled her back to reality. She realized she had been staring intently at Brittany and Santana's linked hands.

Sugar blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. "You guys are a great couple." She felt her cheeks begin to burn. Brittany grinned happily at Sugar then squeezed Santana's hand.

"Thanks! We totally are," she said, smiling at Santana. Santana peeked at Sugar in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah. Thanks," Santana mumbled. Brittany rolled her eyes.

"Contain your enthusiasm Santana," she said.

"Sorry," Santana mumbled, eyes on the road. Brittany pulled Santana's hand up to kiss it. "Britt, I'm trying to drive."

"Good thing you're left-handed then. Songs Sugar?" Brittany said, turning back to look at Sugar again. Sugar had been listening to the radio a lot lately, trying to pick up on some of the music, but she didn't want to say the wrong thing.

"I really don't know. You guys are the experts. Have you asked Mercedes yet?" Sugar said.

"Wow, Sugar Motta admitting she's not good at something. Are we in an alternate universe?" Santana said.

"Probably not since you're still being a bitch," Sugar snapped without thinking. "Sorry. Asperger's."

"Whatever. As for Wheezy, she may be the "leader" of the group, but Auntie 'Tana is the brains of the operation. I'm going to come up with a mash-up so amazing it'll blow the weave right out of Mercedes' hair," Santana said.

They had just pulled into the Lima Mall parking lot. It was crowded. There's pretty much zilch to do in Lima, Ohio on a Sunday in 2011, so everyone goes to the mall. Brittany bounced up and down in her seat.

"Parking spot ahoy! Off the port bow! Trim the mainsheet and make for that slip!" she yelled, pointing at a spot that a red Ford Explorer was currently vacating. Santana slammed on the brakes sending Sugar flying forward in her seat.

"Aye, aye Captain Brittany! I'm at the helm! Keep your eyes peeled for pirates!" Santana yelled back. Sugar gaped at Santana.

"Captain Santana! I've spotted a potential enemy ship! Starboard side! She's making her way towards our slip! And she's flyin' the Jolly Roger! Pirates ahoy!" Brittany shouted back, pointing at a green minivan making a move on the parking space Santana was heading for.

Smacking down the turn signal, Santana hollered back, "I've readied the cannons!"

"Fire on my count! 3, 2, 1!" Brittany called. Blaring her horn, Santana accelerated into the spot, laughing hysterically at the look on the face of the middle-aged mom driving the van. Brittany and Santana were cackling in the front seat.

"You guys are really weird," Sugar said, rubbing the place where the seatbelt dug into her shoulder during their aggressive parking maneuver.

Santana and Brittany were still giggling as they unbuckled their seatbelts and climbed out of the car.

"Did you see the look on that lady's face?" Santana said, wiping tears from her eyes. The woman in the van was still sitting right where they left her, staring at the car, probably waiting to see who was driving. Santana waved at her. The lady flipped her off which only made Santana laugh harder. Santana glanced back at Sugar whose mouth was still slightly ajar.

"You liked it," Santana said.

* * *

><p>They decided to try Macy's first. As Brittany and Santana browsed through the racks of clothes, Sugar noticed that they barely ever broke contact. If they weren't holding hands, Santana had her hand on Brittany's waist or back or Brittany's hand was on Santana's arm or shoulder. When one moved a step too far, the other would look around disoriented and grab on again. After a few minutes, Sugar realized they weren't shopping for themselves. They were shopping for each other. Santana would pull a dress off the rack and hold it up to Brittany then either put it back or toss it to Sugar who was holding an armful of dresses by now. Finally a saleswoman came over and asked Sugar if she wanted to start a dressing room.<p>

Sugar waited outside while Brittany and Santana changed in their room. Sugar listened to their low voices as they tried on dresses.

"San?"

"Yeah babe?"

"What do you think of this?"

"You look beautiful."

"Is it appropriate for a fancy party?"

"Definitely. What about this for me?"

"You look hot."

"Thanks B."

"Really hot."

"Britt." Giggles floated from the dressing room. "B, not now."

"Saaan, come on." More giggles.

"Really. Later. I promise. We should ask Sugar what she thinks about the dresses."

They came out of the dressing room and did a twirl for Sugar.

"You guys look awesome, of course," Sugar said.

"Thanks Sug. You're sweet," Brittany said.

Santana and Brittany went back into their dressing room. The saleslady came over to Sugar after a few minutes.

"Are they all set or do they need other sizes?" she asked.

"I think they're fine right now," Sugar said. "Thanks."

"If you don't mind my asking, are you and those girls cousins or something? You look at lot like them," the woman asked. Sugar's eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, no. We're just friends. Not related," Sugar said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You just look quite a bit like them. They seem… um… very close," the woman said. She must have seen them holding hands and whispering to each other while they browsed. Then, Santana came out of the dressing room.

"How about this one?" she asked.

"I like it," Sugar replied. The saleswoman was staring at Santana with a weird look on her face.

"I recognize you," she said. Santana looked at her blankly. "You're the girl from that commercial." Sugar watched as the color drained from Santana's face.

"I, um, don't know what you're talking about," she stuttered.

"No, I'm positive. You're the cheerleader from that political ad that kept running during the evening news," the woman insisted. At that same moment, Brittany bounced out of the dressing room and came up behind Santana, resting her hands on Santana's waist. She was oblivious to the awkward situation unfolding.

"Sug, what do you think of this one? I think I like the other one better," Brittany said. Sugar just looked at Brittany and shrugged weakly. She wasn't sure what to do. The saleswoman looked at Santana, then at Brittany, then back at Santana, realization slowly forming on her face.

"Oh, I see. Well if you… ladies, need any help you can ask my associate Karen at the cash register," she said curtly before walking away. Santana looked like she had just been punched in the stomach.

"San? Santana. Hey, what's wrong? What happened?" Brittany asked, spinning Santana around to face her.

"That… woman. She saw the commercial. She was upset because of… me. She didn't want to help us anymore because of me," Santana muttered, her voice shaking. Brittany looked confused.

"I don't think I understand," Brittany said, rubbing her hands up and down Santana's arms.

"She was mad. She was mad because I like… you. Because I like girls," Santana whispered.

"She was mad?" Brittany asked.

"Britt, I can't. I can't stay here. We have to go. Now," Santana said. Sugar remembered her voice.

"We should go. You should take her home," Sugar said. Brittany nodded.

Santana and Brittany changed quickly and left Macy's without buying anything, avoiding the staring and whispering from the saleswoman and the other lady at the cash register. Nobody spoke the whole way to car. Brittany opened the passenger's side door for Santana then climbed into the driver's seat. Immediately, she laced her fingers with Santana's.

"That lady was stupid and you looked hot in those dresses," Brittany whispered to Santana. Santana nodded wearily and leaned her head against the window.


End file.
